Christmas Cookies

Santa, reindeer, and elephants oh my! Yes, ohhh yes it is Christmas-cookie-making time in the Clement household. Don't you fret, the usual cookie cutter suspects were there: Mr. Gingerbread man, the mistletoe, the lone apple, and the random coyote. Can't make a batch of Christmas sugar cookies without them.
This year we did not use Grandma's traditional sugar cookie recipe. We wanted a recipe that would not require us to chill the dough for several hours or over night. So after an extensive search on this amazing new invention, the world wide web, we discovered a recipe that only required the dough to chill for about an hour. In the end it didn't really matter since we let the dough chill for a couple hours while we had dinner and hung out with the rest of the family (aka played with Rory). So here is the recipe we used, followed by Grandma's sugar cookie recipe!

Sugar Cookies
(Makes 24 cookies - we doubled the recipe)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
egg whites and sprinkles (for decorating)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add the egg and vanilla, mix until just combined
4. Add the flour and baking powder in intervals (dough will seem as if it doesn't have enough moisture, but it will come together when chilled)
5. Divide the dough into four equal parts, shape into disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour or until firm.
6. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out one of the four parts at a time
7. Cut out shapes with cookies cutters (one must be an elephant or rubber duckie)
8. Place the cutout cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet
9. Brush each cookie with egg whites and decorate to your little hearts desire!
10. Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes
11. Let the cookies cool

(note: The above photo is obviously exactly what it should look like while cutting and decorating these cookies. Messy counter: flour, cookie cutters, and sprinkles everywhere)


Well now what you've all been waiting for, the real deal:

White Rolled Cookies
(note the index cards are covered in saran wrap? Why? We may never know..)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
13 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
4 tbsp milk
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cup flour

Directions:
1. Sift 1 cup of the flour with the cream of tartar and baking soda
2. Mix all the ingredients together, the dough should be soft
3. Wrap the dough in saran wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight
4. Preheat the oven to 350
5. Roll chilled dough, in small chunks, on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin - roll very thin (note: Dad will be the judge of the appropriate thinness of the cookies)
6. Cut with cookie cutters quickly and place on greased cookie sheets
7. Brush with egg white and decorate
8. Bake for 7 minutes (to bake to Dad's liking, the cookies must be cripsy!)