Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies Recipe 455

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and mace. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or rub between your fingers. When butter pieces are no larger than pea size, stir in the egg, vanilla and heavy cream. Blend thoroughly. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 5 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges begin to brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
• To make the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat the confectioners' sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream and salt until smooth and creamy. Spread on top of cooled cookies. Let the frosting dry before storing or serving.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) .
• Over a large bowl, sift together all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, sugar. Cut in butter and blend with a pastry blender until mixture resembles cornmeal. Stir in lightly beaten egg, cream, and vanilla. Blend well. Dough may be chilled, if desired.
• On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Sprinkle with sugar; cut into desired shapes. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until delicately brown.

Steps:

• Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a second large bowl and mix well. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture 1 cup at a time. Chill the dough for 3 to 4 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Roll out the dough and cut it into shapes with cookie cutters or a knife. Place the shapes on the prepared cookie sheet. If decorating with colored sugar, brush the cookies with milk and sprinkle with colored sugar (if using royal icing, leave unfinished). Bake until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.
• Remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely. If using royal icing, decorate the cookies as desired.
• Combine the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and 3/4 cup water in a large bowl. Mix slowly with an electric mixer until stiff enough to form peaks; the icing should be pure white and thick, but not fluffy and bubbly. If the frosting is over-beaten, it will get aerated which makes it harder to work with. If this happens, let the frosting sit to settle, and then use a rubber spatula to vigorously beat and smooth out the frosting.
• Add up to 1 tablespoon food coloring and mix with a rubber spatula until the color is uniform. Gels are best with royal icing. You don't want to thin them with liquid colors. Be careful of adding too much color, which reduces the sheen of the frosting and can break down the consistency of the frosting over a couple of days. Store the icing at room temperature, covered, with plastic wrap on the surface.
• Yield: 3 1/2 cups icing

Steps:

• Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
• Cut in butter until fine.
• Add egg, cream (or evaporated milk), and vanilla.
• Roll out dough evenly on to a lightly floured surface. (I separate my dough into 3 pieces and roll each piece to 1/4 inch thickness.).
• Sprinkle with sugar. (I usually skip this step if I plan to frost the cookies).
• Cut out with cookie cutters and place on an ungreased baking sheet. (The cookies do not really spread much, so about an inch apart is fine.).
• Bake at 400F for 5 - 8 minutes or until edges just start to brown. (In my oven 6 minutes is perfect - the cookie is firm, but not over-cooked and the bottoms are just-browned.).
• Remove to cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cream together shortening, sugar and brown sugar.
• Mix in egg.
• Mix in buttermilk and vanilla.
• Combine the dry ingredients.
• Stir dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.
• Chill dough for 1 hour.
• Drop mixture by rounded teaspoons 2" apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
• Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of cookie dough.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes or until set.