I am so excited that it’s another month and another blog hop over at Paper Trey Ink! My Mom was able to squeeze some of my PaperTrey Ink supplies into her suitcase, so we’ve had fun the last day or so dreaming of all the ways we can use our new supplies. We debated over a hostess gift that would be filled with coffee and special coffee related items and found the cutest photo cube that we thought would be a fun gift for our families. In the end we just couldn’t resist…
This adorable child size mixing bowl. How cute is that? By far one of my favorite holiday traditions is baking sugar cookies. Every year when I was little we went to the Festival of Trees in Atlanta and my favorite part was the sugar cookie decorating station. I was SO bummed out when I got too big to decorate sugar cookies! After getting married I decided that the kid in me just NEEDED sugar cookies at Christmas time, so I began hunting for the best sugar cookie recipe. I tried tons of recipes… and every one of those cookies was sacrificed for the greater good! TeeHee! But eventually I created my own little recipe that included certain elements from several recipes.
In the hopes of passing down my love for sugar cookies at Christmas time, I decided the mixing bowl and little utensils would be the perfect gift for my kids this year (and would make a great gift for any child!) I created a card to accompany the gift set and included a recipe card. I also thought it would be fun to add a new recipe to my kids’ collection each year because in addition to making sugar cookies we also have the tradition of filling the house with lots and lots of special Christmastime treats!
My kids caught me trying to photograph their gift set (oops!) so we let them in on the fun. Hailey promised to act surprised whenever I gave her the bowl… I’m such a softy so we may have to give it a trial run if baby Landon doesn’t decide to come in the next few days!
Here is the complete recipe if you are interested in trying it:
The Best Sugar Cookies Ever!!!
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened (no substitutions)
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Buttercream Icing (I couldn’t find another link for this… I don’t use the lemon in mine! Might be worth trying though!)
Colored sugar crystals, edible glitter, sprinkles, small round candies, and/or gumdrops (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and sugar until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and creamy. At low speed, beat in egg, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat in flour, baking powder, and nutmeg just until blended. 2. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces; flatten each into a disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or, place dough in freezer 30 minutes.)
3.On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough 1/8 inch thick. With floured 3- to 4-inch assorted cookie cutters, cut dough into as many cookies as possible; wrap and refrigerate trimmings. Place cookies, 1 inch apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet. 4. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough and trimmings.
5.When cookies are cool, prepare Buttercream Icing if you like; use to decorate cookies as desired. While frosting is still wet, sprinkle with sugar crystals or glitter, or attach sprinkles, candies, and/or gumdrops if you like. Set cookies aside to allow frosting to dry completely, about 1 hour. Store cookies in tightly covered container (with waxed paper between layers, if decorated) at room temperature up to 2 weeks, or in freezer up to 3 months.
