Around the holidays everyone bakes their favourite treats and goodies. I always look forward to tasty chocolates, yummy cakes and superbly decorated cookies. I took part in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year, and I can’t tell you how exciting it is to receive a bunch of different cookies in the mail. It’s such a treat!
The cookies I decided to make this year where simple. As kids my Mom always made up a huge batch of cute shaped sugar cookies, and we would anxiously wait at the table while she mixed up different coloured royal icing for us to decorate with. Whenever I think of holiday baking I think of sugar cookies.
The recipe that we use is from Company’s Coming, circa 1987. This cookbook is older than me, and honestly it’s one of the best. Everything is so simple and this recipe is no different. Anything with sugar, butter and icing has got to be great.
Sugar Cookies
recipe from Company’s Coming, 1987
- 1 cup butter
- 1.5 cup sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 1tsp vanilla ( I used a little bit more)
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in your eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and mix until incorporated.
Mix in flour, baking powder and salt. Once mixed cover dough in plastic wrap and chill, 30 minutes – 1 hour (The cookbook doesn’t say to do this, but honestly your dough will be way to soft and the shapes won’t make it through baking). Once chilled roll dough out until it is about the thickness of pie crust, cut into desired shapes and bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.
For the icing, I just used a typical Royal Icing recipe.
Royal Icing
- 4 cups icing sugar
- 3 tbsp meringue powder
- .5 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup warm water
Beat the icing sugar and meringue powder until combined, and vanilla and water until you have reached your desired consistency. The icing should be used immediately or covered in an air tight container, as it does dry out quite quickly.
