I’m linking up once again to the Tuesday recipe exchanges - Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace,  Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff and Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam.

I’m not sure if these are my favourite cookies or not - I like so many different kinds - but they are certainly in the top ten.  This is my Mom’s recipe, and one I normally make at Christmas, but I am thinking of making some for St Patrick’s Day this year. I bought a cute little shamrock shaped cookie cutter when I was in California and I’ll ice them with green icing and sprinkles.

 

1 cup butter (softened to room temperature)

1 ½ cups sifted icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla or almond flavouring

1 egg

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

 

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and the egg and stir to mix.  Sift together the flour, soda and cream of tartar.  Blend into the butter and egg mixture.  Stir the mixture into a sort of ball shape, and put in the refrigerator for at least two hours, longer if possible.

 

Preheat the oven to about 350º – 375º F or about 150ºC.   (Ovens can vary wildly so do go carefully, and err on the side of cooler rather than hotter.  You can always bake the cookies longer!)  Line baking trays (baking sheets) with greaseproof paper (wax paper).  Divide the dough in half, putting one half back in the refrigerator. 

 

Roll out one half of the dough on a floured surface to a thickness of about ¼ inch. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters.  Carefully remove the shapes and place them on the baking trays.  Half the dough should fill two baking trays.   You can re-roll the scraps and cut them out as well, but only do this once or twice or the dough will get very tough. 

 

Place the two baking trays in the oven for about 10 minutes, switching the trays from one oven rack to the other half way through.  Cooking time will depend on your oven.  The cookies should be just beginning to go golden on the edges.  Don’t overcook them though, you are aiming for a pale cookie so they look good decorated.  Remove the cookies from the oven and let them sit for a minute or two.  Now carefully remove them from the baking trays and place them on wire racks to cool.

 

Meanwhile, remove the remaining dough from the refrigerator.  Roll out, cut out and bake as above. 

 

When the cookies are absolutely cold, you can ice or decorate them as desired.  You can make an easy icing from 1 cup icing sugar, ½ tsp flavouring (try vanilla, lemon, peppermint or almond) and 1 ½ tablespoons cream or 1 tablespoon water.  Just mix everything together carefully, adding a bit more (or less) water or cream to make a fairly thick but spreadable consistency.   You can add a drop of food colouring if desired – try green for St Patrick’s Day.  I always like to ice the entire cookie in one colour and then sprinkle with decorative sprinkles that you can buy in the baking section of your supermarket – but you can do whatever you fancy.

 

If you are in a real hurry and don’t want the fiddle of icing the cookies, sprinkle them with white or coloured sugar BEFORE baking.  They cook up a bit more golden but you’ve got pretty and delicious cookies fairly quickly this way.