Sugar, Sugar

As we come upon the holidays, I knew I had to share one of my “tried and true” recipes for our family.  It’s for sugar cookies. 

My husband is mad for them.  A holiday isn’t a holiday without them.  He, unlike me, does not like the autumnal spices (and therefore, the before-blogged-about pumpkin bread,)  rich creamy Christmas desserts, too fancy chocolate concoctions for Valentine’s Day or any other time, or sickening sweet, fluffy Easter treats.   Simply put, holidays = sugar cookies. 

Luckily, one can customize sugar cookies for the holidays.  I have cookie cutters even for Thanksgiving.  Alas, I am not an accomplished cookie decorator, so I usually just add a theme-colored icing and perhaps sprinkles.  Nonetheless, the holidays arrive and we’ve marked them in our own family tradition.

Of course, for my “Sugar” I had to do his cookies right.  So, I searched for a while and finally found a great recipe in the now defunct Rosie magazine.  It has a hint of lemon extract in it, which gives it a really nice taste.  The dough needs to be chilled before using and it helps to roll it out a couple of times with a little flour to get it to a great cut out consistency.

This is for you, Curt:

Sugar Cookies from Rosie magazine

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt.  In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs and extracts.  On low, add flour mixture.  Wrap and chill until firm.

Bake cut outs at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.