Soft Sugar Cookies with Icing

This is a re-post from December of last year, but it is the last cookie that I made for my Cookie Dough project. I've updated it to detail how I make and freeze these to get them ready for gift giving!

Milk and cookies. Perfect for an after school snack, leaving for Santa, eating at 3 am or just whenever. These sugar cookies are a family favorite. I make them on all the major holidays, and sometimes in between too, but at Christmas time I make batches and batches of them. Kevin, the girls and I will make a big batch and ice them as one of our 25 days of Christmas (we do something "Christmas-y every night starting Dec 1st).

We leave them for Santa and he ALWAYS cleans his plate ;)

This is a soft sugar cookie, although if you roll them thin and bake them longer you will get a crispy one. Today I made a batch and made half of them to hang on our tree, I'll show those to you when I get them done. To do that, poke a hole in the tops of your cookies before you bake them. Bake like usual and then poke through the holes again when they come out of the oven. You can paint them with glue and sprinkle on glitter, paint with puffy paint, leave them lain or even decorate them with royal icing if you want.

Ok, on to the recipe. This is another one out of my Mennonite Cookbook. My mom made it, I make it and I'm pretty sure my grandma uses the same recipe. It's a keeper :)

Soft Sugar Cookies

1 cup shortening (1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter makes a good flavor)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
Approx. 5 cups flour (do NOT add it all at once)
1/4 cup milk

Mix shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Add salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix well. Add the flour alternately with the milk until the dough is soft but not sticky. (It may not use all 5 cups)
Roll the dough out on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out with cookie cutter and bake on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. It's very important that the cookies are just starting to brown on the bottoms when you take them out of the oven. They will stay nice and soft this way. Let cool and frost with Sugar Cookie Icing.

To Freeze- Line cookie sheets with parchment or freezer paper. Roll out the cookie dough right onto the paper on the cookie sheet and cut out your shapes. Pop the cookie sheet (paper, cookie dough and all) into the freezer and leave it there until the cookie shapes are absolutely rock hard. Remove the cookie sheets from the freezer and stack the cookie shapes, with pieces of parchment or wax paper in between, into zip top freezer bags. Label the bags with the name and baking instructions and return to the freezer.

Sugar Cookie Icing

1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons-1/4 cup milk

Beat the butter until fluffy. 1/2 the powdered sugar and begin adding more sugar gradually. When it gets too stiff to beat, add a little milk. When you are happy with the consistency (it should be thick) add food coloring and frost you cookies. Let the cookies air dry for several hours and you will be able to stack them without them sticking.



They are so good, it's hard to sit still while mom takes a picture! But, waiting has it's own rewards and these cookies are worth the wait.