Rainforest cookies

This recipe came from a story book we checked out of the library.  It was about the rain forest, and had a cookie recipe at the end.  I made a couple of changes - one just a typo correction, and I added more coconut.  These were a bit on the cakey side for me for cookies - I assume it must be the addition of banana because other than that they are a basic chocolate chip cookie.  I liked the flavor, but if I'm going to waste the calories, and 2 sticks of butter I'd rather the cookie seem like a cookie more than a bread.  I could have just made banana bread - would have had more bananas and less butter.  But that is me being silly - they are super tasty, and I do want to eat a ton once I start eating, but then again I'm a cookie monster.  :)

Ingredients

• 2 to 2 1/4 cups flour (I actually used 1 cup wheat and 1.25 cups white)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 stick butter -(oops I used 2.  Maybe that was my problem. Now I'll have to make them again.)
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 2 cups chocolate chips (12 oz)
• 1 cup chopped cashews

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.  combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
2. beat butter, banana, and sugars until creamy
3. beat in eggs and then add coconut.
4. Add flour mixture using extra flour if needed.
5. Stir in chocolate chips and cashews.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet (I always cover mine in parchment or a baking mat.)
7. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Cherry cheesecake cookies

Here is a fun cookie I found over on Mel's kitchen cafe.  It is one of my favorite recipe blogs.  These were a lovely, novel, tasty cookie.  I loved that the red made them seem Chirstmasy for our goodie plates as well.  Yum!
She says they only make 2 dozen, but it made 4 dozen for us.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 8 oz packages cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat with no problems although they are probably richer with the regular stuff.)
• 2 1/2 sticks butter, softened (1 1/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I didn't measure, we just ground 1 package in the food processor and had some left over.)
• 2 cans (20 oz.) cherry pie filling (we used the premium more cherries and still needed the second can, but not much of it.)

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture.  Mix just until combined.  Refrigerate until dough is firm.  (at least 30 minutes.)
2. Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment.  Place graham crackers in a bowl.  
3. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, then roll the balls in graham cracker crumbs.   Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using a Tablespoon measure, make an indentation in the center of each ball. (I tried something smaller -like my 1/2 Tablespoon - it was too small for 3 cherries to fit - use the Tablespoon.  It is perfect size.)  Place 3 cherries in the dimple.  Bake 12 to 14 minutes - until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes on the sheet then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Spritz Reindeer

Well, these cookies looked cute, but there were some issues with them that I wish would have been written in the directions.  I guess that is why it is sometimes better to find recipes online - better info than from a magazine. They make everything sound nice and simple.  I actually didn't make this batter.  DH did while I was out with the kids this morning, but he couldn't figure out how to get the cookie press to work, so I did the tedious part.  I took pictures of many of the reindeer I made.  The original recipe had you put these over a whole pretzel like the ones on the left hand side of the photo.  However I only had so many whole pretzels, so after that, I just used random parts to make lots of fun shaped antlers.  I really liked them with the broken pretzels - gave them personality.  The original recipe also had you use chocolate chips for the nose.  I have a few done like that in the photo, but I liked the mini m & m better, so I stuck with that for most of them.
As far as flavor, these are only OK.  However, they are super cute.

Tips:
Don't use the cookie press right over the pretzel (like the recipe told me to)  It will either break the pretzel or it won't stick to the pan and come off of the press.  I messed with the first dozen like that before I started making them in my hand.  That worked a lot better, but better still were the ones made with fragments of pretzels because I made the cookie right on the cookie sheet and then stuck the antlers in the top of the already pressed cookie.  I've written directions using pieces.  To use whole, just place the cookie over the top of the bottom curve of the pretzel.  The picture has both type - whole pretzel and pieces.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 bag large pretzel twists
• 1 bag semi-sweet mini baking M & M's  (green and blue for eyes, brown or red for noses)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375.  In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in sugars and cocoa until well blended.  Beat in milk, vanilla and egg yolk.  On low speed, slowly beat in flour until well blended, scraping the bowl as necessary.
2. Fill heart template in cookie press; fill cookie press with dough.  Using cookie press, press 12 hearts onto a cookie sheet leaving plenty of room above them for antlers.  Press pretzel pieces into the top of the heart shape, trying to almost put them under the cookie.  Place green or blue M&M's for eyes and brown or red for a nose.  (I liked using the eyes to help shape the cookie and push it down on top of the pretzel that was under it.)
3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until cookes are firm, but not browned.  Remove from pans to cooling rack.

Raspberry poinsettia blossoms

So, I'm totally slow in getting my Christmas goodies out this year, so today I got busy and got half of it done.  Will get the other half done tomorrow.  This is what I started with in the morning because the dough had to refrigerate.  They were simple, and good, but actually quite sweet with the jello in there.  I used a sugar free jello mix because it is what I had on hand, and it worked fine.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used butter)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 box (4 serving size) raspberry flavored gelatin
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 2 Tablespoons yellow candy sprinkles

Directions

1. In a large bowl, bream butter, sugar, vanilla and egg.  Beat in flour
2. Shape the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls.  cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 375.  On ungreased cookie sheet, place balls about 2 inches apart.  With a sharp knife, make 3 cuts in the top of the ball (to cut it in 1/6ths) about 3/4 the way through to make 6 wedges.  Spread wedges apart slightly to form flower petals.  (cookies will separate and flatten as they bake.)  Sprinkle candy sprinkles into center of each cookie.
4. Bake 9-11 minutes or until set and edges begin to brown.  cool 2-3 minutes, remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.

candy cane cookies

My goodness, 6 days since I've posted here.  That is how I know life is busy, but then again, it always is at the holidays.  Not to mention DH was out of town last week, 2 of my boys were sick, and we were very over scheduled for some reason.  Anywho, I'm starting with what I made today because it is fresh on my mind, and I still have the tab up on my computer.  It was my turn to teach pre-school and we are doing letter J for Jesus - going with a Christmas theme.  So I decided to read the book the Legend of the Candy Cane and have candy cane shaped cookies for a snack.  (I so have to buy that book - I had to borrow it today.)
I found a recipe on allrecipes.com.  I ended up adding a 1/2 cup flour, but I'm not sure I'd do it again.  (This is a very unsure.  I felt the dough could stand to be a bit stickier so that it wouldn't crack, but I also wouldn't want it to stick to the counter.  Also, I loved the texture of these, kind of a cross between a sugar cookie and one of those Mexican Wedding cookies.  I really liked the texture.  BUT, I also added a few drops of water to my white half.  The red half was just about perfect with the red food coloring I added because I used the liquid kind. -part of the reason I went with the extra flour in the first place.)  Soo, that all being said, next time, I'll have a personal toss up with whether or not to add the extra flour.  I may try it once without, or I may be chicken and want and exact repeat.  Time will tell.  OK, on to how I made them before kids get home from school and I have to get meat in a marinade before I teach piano lessons...

Note on pictures - see the difference between twisting individual cords(top cookie) and rolling the to cords into 1 2 colored cord and twisting the 1 cord (the rest of the cookies.)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup butter flavor crisco
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour (see note above to decide whether to go with less or not.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't measure, original had more, but I just poured an amount in my hand that looked good and tossed it in.)
• red food coloring

Directions

1. Mix butter and crisco together until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth.  Add egg and extracts and mix until smooth. (Or just add it all at once and beat.  I just like to do it separately for some reason.)
2. Add flour and salt and mix until a dough forms.
3. Divide dough in half.  Set 1/2 of of dough aside.  Add red food coloring to desired shade in 1/2 of the dough and mix until combined.  
4. Roll out dough into 4" "snakes" (so said my 2 year old - he thought we were playing with playdough this morning.)  (I actually rolled 2 really long snakes set them side by side and cut them in 4 inch lengths.)  Take your 2 4 inch snakes and roll together into 1 fat snake that is 1/2 red and 1/2 white.  Twist the snake and curve the top over to make a candy cane shape.
5. Bake at 375 for 9-10 minutes.  (Mine took 10.)

Other notes:  If making J's, make sure to make them face the right direction.  My instinct is to make a candycane go the other way.  Also, I did a bit of trial and error on the rolling.  Originally I started just twisting the 2 strands together, but then I remembered reading a post on Allrecipes.com that said to roll them together.  I tried that and it was way better.  The cookies didn't crack as much.  (see picture for difference in appearance.)

A final note - if you want to add  peppermint flavor, either exchange the almond extract for peppermint or add crushed peppermint candies to the top of the cookies by brushing with heated corn syrup (10-20 seconds in the microwave) and sprinkling on top.  I loved them the way they were, but I'm not a peppermint fan.

sugar cookies with cream cheese icing

So today for playgroup I decided it would be fun to let the kids decorate some pumpkin cookies, and it gave me an excuse to try a new cookie recipe with a good way to get rid of a lot of cookies without eating them all.  I need that.  I have no willpower when it comes to eating cookies.  I had seen this recipe on My kitchen cafe this past week,  and I wanted to try it, but not if they were going to sit in my house for me to eat.   I was more than happy to give it a try to share.
After all Mel's bragging about these cookies I was sadly not super impressed.  Maybe I overstirred the batter, maybe I added too much flour (I did add a Tablespoon or 2, but I had also turned my mixer on too fast and poofed out a lot of flour and the dough was very wet.  To me I was replacing the flour on my counter)  Anyway, not sure what would make these end up dry, but I found them a bit dry.  I overcooked a couple of batches according to mel's directions to not let the bottoms brown at all, but even the not brown batch seemed a bit dry.   Doesn't seem possible as wet as the dough was - it was a bit hard to roll.  I had to roll it with plenty of flour.  I also had to be gentle so it wouldn't be totally stuck to the counter.  Anyway, from the look of the dough, I really thought they would live up to the melt in your mouth review that Mel had given them.  The dough was light and fluffy.  The cookies look light and fluffy, but when eating the cookie I felt like I need more and more icing.  ?? What I did like was the flavor.   I liked the lemon zest, almond, and vanilla.
Mel's icing was also good.  Nice and fluffy, and wonderfully tasty with the cream cheese.  It was delicious.  However I'm not sure it is better enough to be worth all of the cream in it.  I guess I'm just a simpleton in my cookies.  I want them to roll out easy, not need refrigeration and my icing just has to be thick, not fluffy and creamy.
Mel has lots of notes about exactly how to cook these here, but I'm just putting the simple directions from  Good things catered.  I may try them again because the flavor was good, but I would definitely not follow the mel directions of adding 2 cups flour first.  I'd just add it all and stir it less.  Her other directions are good though.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks) room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest (2 lemons for me.)
• 5 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes
3. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing thoroughly.  Add vanilla, almond and lemon zest.
4. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time.  Do not over mix, this process should take about 1 minute.
5. Chill dough or roll and cut right away.
6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or spray lightly with cooking spray.  Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.
7. Allow to cool and frost.

Here is Mel's icing


Ingredients

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla.  Mix until very smooth and light with no lumps.  In a separate bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks.  (I actually used both my kitchenaid and bosch to do this - one beat the cream cheese and one beat the whipping cream - was done super fast.)  
2. Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix until well combined and smooth.  Store in the fridge.

candy corn cookies

I just saw these on Jamie cooks it up today, and decided to make them because I thought they looked easy.  That is what I get for doing my own thinking.  I must say, it was probably much my fault because I did sub out some applesauce for melted butter, but I don't know why that would make the batter so much more sticky.  I added lots more flour.  The flavor was still good, but I did still have to refrigerate the dough, and when it warmed up, it was not fun to work with.  I think if I made these again, I'd just use my sugar cookie recipe and color them.  The concept it cute.  Or, I may try it again but with a different brand of cake mix.  They do vary on amount in the box.  I used betty crocker today.  Jamie had used Duncan Hines.  I might try that because like I said, the flavor was great.  I did decorate these the next day.  They were good.  These cookies seemed to get better the longer they sat.

Ingredients

• 2 white cake mixes
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons sour cream
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• red and yellow food coloring.

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until combined.  Divide dough into thirds.  Add yellow food coloring to 1/3, and red and yellow food coloring to the other third (I used like 10 drops red and 40 yellow for the orange color.)
2. Divide each color ball in half (somehow I didn't manage to do this part -definitely suggest it though.  It would be easier to deal with smaller strips.  I kept thinking mine was making more because it had the extra flour - not because I can't follow directions somedays.)  Roll each 1/2 of a ball into a rectangle about 9 X 4 inches.  Cut the rectangles into strips just over an inch wide (3 strips per rectangle)  Place a white, yellow, and orange strip next to each other.  Push together slightly.  Cut into triangles. Go to Jamie cooks it up for lovely pictures of this entire step.  
3. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.  

Frost.  (I didn't, yet - I may still this afternoon.)

Oatmeal peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies

Here is another new cookie recipe I found.  This one comes from brown eyed baker.  She had lots of cookie recipes that would be fun to try.  These interested me because they were a bit of everything.  Oatmeal, chocolate chips, and peanut butter.  They were great.  My problem with trying to judge a cookie is that I'm a cookie monster.  They are a total weakness of mine.  These were wonderful cookies, but they had so little oatmeal, I'm not sure you can call them and oatmeal cookie.  I also have to say I liked the chocolate chip cookies I tried the other day better than these, but that is not to say they were bad.  They are delicious.  I just liked the other ones a bit better.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• ½ cup rolled oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2.  Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. On medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined. Stir in the oats, and then the chocolate chips.
4. Use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) and drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

chocolate chip cookies (pudding in mix)

Don't know why, but yesterday I was a cooking fool.  OK, maybe not that bad, but considering I had already cleaned out a whole cupboard that got weevil infested, and went to the grocery store in the morning, then washed the car in the afternoon, I ended up doing a lot more cooking that I expected.  It all started when Benjamin wanted to make cookies after we washed the car (that was his request as well.)  I really wanted to make the cookie dough truffles I've been dying to try, but unfortunately I had no mini chocolate chips, and I really think they would work better with the minis, so I tried a new recipe that I had seen online and had on my Things I want to try page.  It is from a new website I found - moments to live by.
Tip/Trick
So, I purposely didn't buy any brown sugar at the store when I went yesterday because I wanted to try thing thing I saw online.  (Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw it.)   You mix 1 Tablespoon molasses and 1 cup of white sugar to make brown sugar.  Easy right. It works too.  I think that plain it tastes a bit strong of a molasses flavor, but in things you can't tell at all.  I used it in these cookies last night and in some cinnamon muffins I made this morning.  No issues.  So yea, a new trick/tip.  I'm not going to worry if I run out of brown sugar.
Ok, on to the new cookie recipe.  I made a couple of alterations - I didn't have a 5 oz. pudding mix because all I have at my house are the sugar free.  The one not sugar free I had was coconut cream or something and the weight on the small box was 3 oz. or something, so I figured I needed a bit more than the small box.  I had a partial box that I had used for some Hungry Girl recipes so I added a whole box and a partial box of the 4 serving size sugar free pudding.
Now on to the flavor - my usual favorite chocolate chip cookie are Nestle toll house, the ones in their book, and on the back of the package of chips.  Nice and chewy.  These however can rival those as a favorite.  I really liked the texture of these cookies.  Nice and crisp on the outside but still chewy on the inside - even after sitting on the counter for a couple of hours.  Bad for me, cookies are a weakness of mine.  But they sure are delicious.  Yum.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup softened butter 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1-5 oz package vanilla instant pudding mix (I used 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 of the 4 serving size sugar free pudding mixes)
• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilaa nd mix well.  In a seperate bowl mix pudding mix, soda, and salt.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Add flour bit by bit until texture is right (You should be able to roll dough into a ball in your hands.  If it is too sticky, add more flour.  The amount called for was perfect for me.)  Mix well.  Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment) until edges are just browning (12-14 minutes depending on you oven and your elevation - 12 was perfect for me.)

Magic in the middle cookies

I actually saw these over on Mels' kitchen cafe.  She has them pictured on the side of her blog always, and they have intrigued me for a long time.  Benjamin wanted to make cookies yesterday, so I decided to try them.  They are originally from King Arthur Flour's site.  I followed the directions from there because they have a lot of pictures.

Oatmeal raisin cookies

This recipe comes from an old Nestle Toll house book.  I've written before that I used to have 2 copies of this book - a hard cover and a grocery store magazine style.  I gave the magazine style on away and my hard cover is looking used.  It doesn't appear to be available anymore.  That is why I love the blog.  I don't usually post cookies here for some reason, but I don't usually stray from the recipe much.  DH actually made these.  We only subbed out raising for chocolate chips.  They were soooo good.  Somehow they reminded me of a pecan sandie, but also and oatmeal cookie.  Too tasty to make again for a while.  Cookies are such a weakness of mine.

 

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups quick cook oats (I usually use regular but DH used quick cook which I think helped give these cookies their texture.)
• 2 cups raisins
• 1 cup chopped pecans (we used the cookie pieces which are really tiny and I don't usually like them because they are so small, but again, I think that in this case it is what made them remind me of pecan sandies.)

Directions

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a mall bowl.  Beat brown sugar, butter and granulated sugar in a large mixer bowl until creamy.  Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in oats, raising and nuts.  Drop by rounded Tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 375 for 9 to 10 minutes.  Let stand 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

This is my first real experiment changing up a cookie recipe.  I must be getting really brave.  The original is from the Nestle cookie book that I love.  I was going for a lighter recipe, but not so light that I lost the texture of the cookie.  I swapped some peanut butter for regular butter, used egg substitute, and used less mini chips rather than lots of regular sized chips.  I also added some cocoa powder to make up for the missing chips.  They turned out great -- to good really, I've eaten way too many.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (It may have been a Tablespoon. I remember 1 Tablespoon, but wrote 1 teaspoon in the recipe book. Not enough to make them brown, or take over the cinnamon flavor.)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugars in another bowl. Beat in egg substitute and vanilla.  Gradually add flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by Tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Press down slightly to flatten.
3.  Bake at 375 for 9 minutes.  Let stand for 4 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to cooling racks.

I made 32 cookies.

Double chocolate cranberry chunkies

Duncan picked and made these cookies for FHE tonight. He did a good job for his first time making cookies by himself. They were quite tasty. He did leave egg shell in there, but I think I managed to get them all out.



Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries or dried tart cherries (we used cranberry)
• additional granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in small bowl; set aside. Beat butter and sugars in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat in flour until blended. Sir in chocolate chunks and cranberries
3. Drop dough by level 1/4 cupfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Flatten dough until 2 inches in diameter with bottom of glass that has been dipped in additional granulated sugar. (We didn't make them this big. We just made our normal cookie scoop size. I didn't flatten or sugar the first batch, but Duncan wanted to make them like the recipe, so he flattened the other cookies.
4. Bake 11 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set. Cool cookies 2 minutes on cookie sheets; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely.
   

Recipe says it makes 1 dozen 4 inch cookies. I made 2 1/2 to 3 dozen regular sized cookies.

sugar cookies and buttercream frosting

This cookie recipe is from an old ward cookbook. It is my favorite for sugar cookies because it is easy, makes a lot, doesn't need to be refrigerated, and rolls out quite easily. It isn't the most flavorful sugar cookie, but it is good. I have another one I love for the flavor, but it is so hard to roll out and cut and it needs refrigeration, so I never use it. This is the one I always go back to. A bad thing about this recipe for my waistline is that they aren't overly sweet, so I can eat way too many of them. :) The buttercream icing is a recipe I made up and wrote at the bottom of this recipe. It makes just about the perfect amount for frosting the amount of cookies this recipe makes.
You have to enjoy the decorations. My 3 year old helped.



Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter flavored shortening
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla (I doubled it from 1 this time around)
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7 cups flour

Directions:
(The directions I have say you can use lard in place of shortening for easy handling of dough. I never have, and I've never had trouble with this dough. In fact, its ease of handling is why I like it.)
Cream the shortening and the sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix. Mix dry ingredients in a separate container. Add half of the milk and flower mix. Beat well. Add the rest of the milk and mix. Add the rest of the flour and mix If the dough is a bit soft, add a bit more flour. (I want to say that with the extra vanilla this time I added just a Tablespoon or 2 more flour, but I wouldn't swear to it. I know I thought about it, but can't remember if I actually did.) Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.


Buttercream icing

Cream together

• 2 cubes butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

separate and color as desired.