A Sepical Family Tradition: Christmas Sugar Cookies

Every year, since I can remember, I've made these sugar cookies at Christmas time. My sons and I have so many memories with these sugar cookies. My boys liked them so much when they were little, I made them their own sugar cookie Christmas tree. Their sugar cookie Christmas tree had individually wrapped sugar cookies hung all over the tree. It really was special.

Each year, we would bake and decorate them together. Well Bryan baked and Hoy taste tested. When my Bryan got older, he started making them with his family. Pictured below, is Bryan when he was eight years old, making Christmas sugar cookies. This photo had become so popular within our family his wife recaptured it for me when he was forty.

That's why I love cooking. There are so many memories around the food we cook and enjoy with our loved ones. Precious memories I cherish and keep close inside my heart. 

Let's get to recipe, before I have to get the tissue out. 

What You Need:

3 Cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 Cup Sugar

2 Sticks Salted Butter (COLD)

1 egg

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp. Pure Almond Extract

1 tsp. Lemon or Orange Zest (this is optional, but I'm convinced this makes these cookies stand apart)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside.

Add the butter and sugar, mix until creamy. Then, add egg and extracts, mix until combined.

Gradually add flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping the bowl and bottom.

The dough will be crumbly, so kneed it together with hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling. Roll onto floured surface.

Cut into whatever shapes you desire.

Place onto parchment-lined baking sheets and put into freezer for five minutes. (See Decorating Directions at the bottom now)

Bake ten to twelve minutes. Let them sit a few minutes on the sheet transfer to a cooling rack.

Repeat the process until you've used all of your dough. If you are using the same baking sheet, make sure it is cool before loading them with cookies again or they will spread. Another tip: Make sure your butter is cold and work quickly before it starts melting in your dough.

Easy, Mess Free Decorating:

What You'll Need: 

1 Egg Yoke (per color)

1 Tbs. Water (per color)

2 or Three Drops of Food Coloring

Directions:

In a small dish, add the yoke of one egg, water and food coloring. Mix together with a fork. Mix as many colors as you'd like.

 With brushes, paint colors onto cookies before sticking them into the freezer. You can add sprinkles or dots too. Then bake.

This is an easy, mess free way for the children to get involved with the decorating. Enjoy!

The Queen Bee Says, "The one you influence today, just might be the one who influences a thousand in the future." 

"Let all that you do be done in love" 1 Corinthians 16:14 

Buzz, Buzz