It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

    Christmas is only a few days away, and our family is in full holiday preparation mode, which means baking several batches of cookies a day. We have already made peanut butter blossoms, lime- macadamia nut shortbread, caramels, chocolates with caramel and nuts (peanuts, cashews and pecans), and these cut-out cookies. Needless to say, it's a fun time of year, but good luck fitting into your pants after it's over. I'm posting this recipe because I think it's overall, the most popular type of cookie at the holidays (if there are others you want to see, let me know and I'll try to post it in the next couple of days). And, it's also a lot of fun to decorate them with family and friends. Most people don't have piping kits at home to decorate with, but we just use a ziploc bag with a small hole in it to pipe the icing.

The arm broke off this poor cookie while we were transferring it, but Cory found a way to make it look like we'd done it on purpose. I suggested dressing him in a hospital gown...

     This cut-out recipe is from my grandma, and we've been making them for Christmas for years. Using powdered sugar instead of conventional granulated sugar makes these cookies very soft and delicate. We usually get together to decorate the cookies together. My mom, my sister and I try to make them look pretty, while my dad's technique is to put lopsided smiley faces on most of the cookies. The last couple years, Cory has also joined us for cookie decorating and has made some entertaining additions, including a gingerbread man with a broken arm and a Christmas pirate (see below).

 Cut-Out Cookies

-1 cup butter at room temperature
-1 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 1/2 cup flour
-1 tsp soda
-1 tsp cream of tartar
-1/4 tsp salt

Buttercream icing
-1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
-1 lb powdered sugar
-3 Tb of milk
-1 tsp vanilla or almond flavoring

for cookies:
-Cream butter in a mixer and sift in sugar until fluffy.
-Add egg and vanilla, and beat well.
-Sift in flour, soda, cream of tartar and salt.
-Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
-Roll out the dough on a floured surface (to 1/8 of an inch). Cut out the cookies and place on a cookie sheet prepared with parchment paper. Parchment paper isn't required, especially if you have non-stick cookie sheets, but it makes it easier to remove the cookies from the sheet without breaking them.
-Bake at 400 F for 6 min.
-Place the baked cookies on a cooling sheet. They will be very delicate, so you may want to allow them to cool a little before removing them from the tray.
-Allow cookies to cool completely before icing.

How to hold a piping bag

for icing:
-cream butter, sugar and milk together, Add vanilla and add a small amount of food coloring to color the icing. Pipe icing onto cookies by placing icing into ziploc bags and cutting out a small piece of the corner of the bag. You can also use piping bags, but this method requires no equipment.
-Get creative and have some fun! 

My dad did quite a few on this tray- can you figure out which ones? :-)