Rolled Sugar Cookies

This week I decided to make a simple recipe after the chocolate profiteroles last week that caused a few problems. I chose do make rolled sugar cookies, so I could use a set of two cookie cutters that my parents gave me for Christmas this past year. Since I was studying abroad during the Fall semester, we spent the holiday season in England, where we traveled all over the southern portion of the country from Cornwall to the Cotswolds to Dover, stopping at many historic sites including Stonehenge. In the Stonehenge gift shop, my mom picked out a set of cookie cutters that I opened on Christmas next to our tiny charity shop Christmas tree. I chose to bake rolled sugar cookies because they're simple, and because I wanted to use the set of English themed cookie cutters with a Stonehenge arch and a fluffy sheep.

I've used the sugar cookie recipe that's below many times when making Christmas cookies for my family and friends. It comes from an old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from 1981. Making the actual dough is very easy, especially compared to the choux pastry that I attempted last week, so the most difficult part of this bake is all of the time needed to cut out all of the cookies and decorate them. At first, I thought that I'd make some icing from scratch, but in the past, I've always run into problems when making homemade frosting or icing. Plus, I'm just lazy sometimes, so I decided to just use some store bought frosting (chocolate on the Stonehenge arches and vanilla on the sheep). Maybe tomorrow I'll try to make some homemade icing for the remaining cookies that need to be decorated.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine

• ⅓ cup shortening

• ¾ cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. Beat butter and shortening for 30 seconds; add sugar and beat till fluffy.

3. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well.

4. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating till well combined.

5. Cover and chill at least 3 hours.

6. Working with ½ the dough at a time, on a lightly floured surface roll to ⅛ inch thickness.

7. Cut into desired shapes. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375°F oven for 8 minutes or till done. Makes 36-48.