These are actually from my Grandma Houghtaling. My mom talks about how she always had some of this dough in the freezer ready for a batch. But since my mom and her siblings would sneak some every so often that by the time Grandma pulled out some dough there wasn't much left. I have about 120+ different cookie cutters and my kids and I make these cookies for EVERY holiday. My husband complains that the peppermint icing should only be for Christmas so I do experiment with other flavors, but my favorite is still the peppermint I grew up with. I use these 13x20 pans for my kids to decorate on, it catches the extra sprinkles which I pore into a misc sprinkle bag that they love to use up, you can see the misc sprinkles on the trees above.
Sugar Cookies
3 ¼ C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder
½ C Butter and margarine
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ C thick sour cream
Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and powder. In separate bowl cream butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill in fridge for 3-4 hours roll out to 1/4 inch cut into shapes. Cook at 350 for 15 mins
Frosting
4 ½ C powder sugar
¼ C milk
1/3 C butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
Food coloring (optional)
Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint add more milk if needed
The secret is in the thickness of the cookie's, don't be stingy when you roll them out. The dough can actually stay good in the freezer for months (if it last's that long without being eaten!). For icing flavors I've tried almond and been happy with it, and even substituted some of the milk for a flavored creamer and had success. So ENJOY! The decorating possibilities are endless.
