Holiday Sugar Cookies

John and I hosted an event for his department this weekend and I have a few great recipes to share. First up- my mother in law's Holiday Sugar Cookies. This versatile dough recipe is perfect for rolling and cutting into festive holiday shapes to be decorated with icings or sugars. I decided to make some fall inspired cookies for the kids that would attending Saturday. (Also, I thought the timing would be appropriate as we approach Christmas cookie season!)

The dough recipe is super simple:

1 cup of sugar

1 stick of butter at room temperature

1 egg

2 cups of self rising flour*

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

* I used all purpose flour. To make your own self rising flour, mix 2 cups of all purpose flour with 1 tablespoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Cream the room temperature butter and sugar together until light. Mix in the egg and extracts until well incorporated and then mix the flour. Shape the dough into a disc and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours before rolling.

I rolled the dough on a lightly floured counter top to a 1/4 inch thickness. I used a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to cut roughly a dozen cookies. I baked the first batch on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees until BARELY turning golden. I prefer the cookies to be a little chewy versus crisp.

(I went the icing route this time, if you prefer to use colored sugars, you'd decorate them before baking. You can also sprinkle some sugar over the wet icing for a glitter effect.)

I gathered the dough scraps together and re-rolled the dough. I then used a pairing knife to cut some free form fall leaves from the dough. I didn't have any other fall shaped cutters so I had to improvise. It actually worked out quite well to have mismatched leaf shapes of different sizes.

I ended up with roughly two dozen cookies total.

While the cookies cooled, I made an extremely simple icing from confectioner sugar, orange juice, and food coloring. I used some small mixing bowls and filled them about half way with sugar. I then added orange juice (you could use milk or lemon juice, whatever you like) a tiny drizzle at a time until the icing was a spreadable consistency.

I mixed a few different shades of orange, yellow, and red/brown for fall. (I also ended up with a beautiful pistachio green by mistake so I threw a couple of those in there too.) I used a spoon to scoop some icing onto each cookie and then the back of the spoon to spread it out to the edges.

I came up with a fun way to "vein" the leaves as well. I used a toothpick to pull some icing of a contrasting color down the middle and out to the sides of the leaves. I did the same to make the pumpkin stems look more realistic.

I let the icing dry for an hour or two before arranging on a platter and covering with plastic wrap until serving.