Christmas Sugar Cookies and Peppermint Sugar Cookies!!

This is one of my favorite recipes! Given to us by Debbie Childs; I know this will become one of your favorites as well. Jana and I love holidays purely for the fact that we have a reason and a theme for a new batch of sugar cookies!! Yes I have posted these before.



Sugar Cookies

2 c. butter
1 ½ c. sugar
4 egg yolks
2 t. vanilla
4 ½ c. flour

Cream butter and sugar, add yolks and vanilla; gradually add flour. Dough rolls out best if it has been chilled for at least 4 hours, but not necessary. Roll out dough with plenty of flour, about ½ inch thick. You don’t have to roll out the whole batch of cookies at one time; I usually split it in thirds or so. Place cut out dough on a buttered cookie sheet. They don’t bake much bigger than as cut out, so you can put them relatively close. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. I only love these cookies if they’re a little undercooked. So when the edges have any golden color, take them out. Also, if your oven or cookie sheets tend to cause the bottom of your cookies to burn, place a piece of aluminum foil underneath the pan, shinny side down.

Icing

2 lb. bag of powdered sugar
3 T. powdered meringue (wilton)
1 t. clear vanilla
1 t. butter flavoring

With a whisk attachment mix ingredients, and color if wanted (preferably gel paste color). You will need to add water tablespoons at a time until it can be mixed completely and is thin enough to pipe through a bag. The frosting should still be thick. If it’s too thick to use a piping bag, add a very small amount of water. Use the thick frosting to outline the cookies, and save some if you’re planning to do any writing or decorations. With the remaining frosting, add water just until frosting is wet enough to drip off a spoon. Use this frosting to fill the cookies that have already been outlined, use fingers or spoon to push frosting to edges, but it should lay out smooth on it’s own, if not, add more water. Let frosted cookies dry over night.

**For Peppermint sugar cookies, I added crushed peppermint candies to the cookie dough. It was very annoying trying to crush them with a ziplock bag and a rolling pin, I was losing patience, but then end result was worth it. But if you can find crushed peppermint candies in the store, maybe in the baking section, it would be worth it. I also added some of the crushed candies to the cookies after being frosted (but while the frosting is still soft) either peppermint candies, or peppermint bark, or just shaved chocolate. I decorated the plate with some red hots, and other christmas candies.

**In the treat bags, I threw in a few regular sugar cookies (although they're not regular, they're amazing) and a few peppermint, and then some random holiday candies. The clear treat bags can be found at Michaels (The happiest place on earth, well, tied with Nordstrom). :)