I think one of the best things about having children is that you finally have an excuse to buy cookie cutters and sprinkles. It’s hard to justify cookie cutters without children; an adult would never make butterfly cookies with sprinkles. But now I have 2 children who are just barely big enough to enjoy Christmas cookies and the I can finally buy a slew of cookie cutters and beautiful multi-colored sprinkles.
So this is our first year to make Christmas cookies and instead of the normal butter cookie recipe, I used shortening and added some chocolate. They turned out really well. The kids and I painted some icing on and added sprinkles. Everything is better with sprinkles.
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1T milk
1t vanilla
1/2t salt
1t baking powder
4 T unsweetened cocoa
2 cups AP flour – you might not need all of it.
Preheat oven to 375. Mix shortening and sugar well.Add egg, milk and vanilla, beat well. Sift dry ingredients together and slowly add them to wet ingredients. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let chill for about an hour. Roll out dough to your desired thickness, cut out with cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, cool on wire racks. Decorate and enjoy!
Cookie icing:
Powdered sugar
milk
food coloring
In a bowl combine a cup of powdered sugar and just a splash of milk, whisk. Add any food coloring, whisk again. Paint on cookies. Let dry.
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