Thanksgiving Cookie Families

This week we created our own families in cookie form. The theme this week was Thanksgiving and gratitude. At Thanksgiving most of us are most grateful for our immediate family,...

...but for the extended family, try this at home using the recipe below.

Cutout Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of butter, softened

• 2 cups white sugar

• 4 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.

2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

3. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

5. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

6. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter.

7. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

8. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in a preheated oven.

9. Cool completely before decorating.

These completely cooled cookies can be decorated with commercially canned icing. Cake icings come in many different colors. Or you can buy white icing and add your own food coloring. The different colors can be individually bagged in Ziplocs with a tiny hole clipped out with scissors or poked out with a toothpick. Ziplocs are great for piping and can be simply thrown away.