My Family’s Christmas Cookie Recipe

This post is one that is very personal for me, as it chronicles one of the family traditions I relish the most: making Christmas cookies. I am equally eager to share this post because it is a guest post written by my mom! She is the reason that I love to cook, and I am so excited to share her Christmas cutout recipe with you. The cutout cookies are buttery and beautiful, and always get eaten quickly.  At Valentine’s Day, she also uses the base recipe to make heart cutouts and dip half of each cookie in chocolate. My mom is the best cook around, so I’ll leave it to her to tell you more!

My name is Jennifer and I am Caroline’s mother.  I was thrilled when she asked me to be a guest on her blog, and since it is Christmas time, I decided to share our family tradition of baking Christmas cookies together.

Cooking is one of my hobbies and I feel nothing brings a family together more than sharing a meal.  Fortunately, our family loves to eat and try new recipes.  Many of our get-togethers are centered around food.  Sometimes we even have a theme: for Christmas Eve we all bring an Italian dish to share, we honor my husband’s German heritage with a German feast for Father’s Day, and we even had a Derby-themed party for the Kentucky Derby.

My first experience with cooking came when I was five and Santa brought me an easy-bake oven. I’m sure my parents and brother got very tired of eating my cakes and cupcakes.   As I grew older, I learned from helping my mother and grandmother in the kitchen. Every Christmas, I can remember helping my mother bake cookies to share with family and friends.  When I married, it became a tradition to still get together for a day of cookie-baking.  When my daughters were old enough, they also joined in on the fun.

My mother is no longer with us, but we continue what she started many years ago.  We honor her by still using her buttery sugar cookie recipe and many of her cookie cutters.  The baking and icing is done at my house now, and our baking group has changed over the years.  What used to be an all-girls activity now includes my husband and son-in-law.  They only like to help ice the cookies and come up with some very unique ways to decorate snowmen and trees; some of those cookies don’t make the give-away trays and have to be eaten by us.

This year I made 12 different kinds of cookies along with the iced cookies we made together. Almost all the trays of cookies will be given away to neighbors, friends, teaching colleagues, my husband’s basketball team, and my daughters’ offices.  Many people have been receiving cookies for years but there are always new names to add to the list!

I have included below my mother’s cutout cookie and icing recipe.  During this holiday season, my wish for you is to share your memories or create new traditions with your own family and friends.  The food is important, but it is also the time you spend with others!

Happy Baking and Eating!!!

Jennifer

Butter Cutout Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. salt

Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer until just combined. Flour the rolling surface and a rolling pin to prevent dough from sticking. Turn out dough onto surface and roll to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters and placed on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees.  I bake small cookies about 7-9 minutes and larger ones 8-10 minutes.  Cool and ice as desired.

Icing

1 stick softened butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teas. almond extract
1 Tbsp. milk or more as needed

Beat butter, sugar and extract together, adding milk as needed to make a creamy icing. Divide into bowls and add food coloring as desired to achieve colored frosting.