Kristy's Famous Decorated Cookies/ Smith Christmas Part 1

WE DID IT!! Yesterday we made Kristy's "Famous Decorated Cookies"!!!! I wasn't sure we would get those made this year but we did!!

It was a beautiful day in Tulsa so we put the cookie trays outside on the outdoor kitchen island.

Here's How we did it.....

This is such a GREAT book. After I graduated from college in 1977 my college roommate's sister bought a house that had a bunch of cookbooks in the basement. That jump started my cookbook collection which now is 150+ ( but we will talk about that in the new year...I have plans to use them!!). This book is one of the prizes I got from my friend's sister. It is the original published in 1963. It is a treasure!! I have used this sugar cookie recipe for years and love it.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup shortening ( The original recipe calls for part butter and part crisco. I used 1/2 c butter flavored crisco and 1/4 cup butter)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Don't you just love the way this old book is written? I do!!

It is very important to beat the shortening , sugar and eggs till light and fluffy....about 3-4 minutes. Add vanilla.

Measure flour by dipping method. Stir flour baking powder, and salt together. Add slowly to sugar mixture, beating between each addition.

When the flour is complete incorporated remove it from the bowl.

Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap. Chill at least 1 hour. This is a double batch so there is a lot of dough!!

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough 1/8' thick on lightly floured board. Since 1963 we now have siicone rolling mats which is what I use. HaHa!

Cut with cookie cutter of your choice. We love trees, holly leaves, stars, snowflakes and candy canes.

Bake 6-8 minutes. It took exactly 6 minutes in my oven on convection @ 375 degrees. When convecting you always go down 25 degrees. I cook everything on convection. It is a more even heat.

A pan of cookies right out of the oven. Move to cooling rack.

When completely cooled you can decorate.

We always used "tub" frosting because I can buy it in red, green, yellow etc. and I don't have to play with food coloring. Kristy puts the icing in ziplock bags and cut a small hole in the corner. Then she ices the cookies with a back and forth swirl. I then sprinkle the tops, put on trays and keep the assembly line going till we are done.

Each recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies depending on the size of the cutters you use. As many of you who know us have noticed we didn't do Santa faces this year......something to look forward to next year!!

We used the cookies from the past two days of baking and made beautiful trays. Kristy took two large trays to share with her "Physician and resident" friends in the ER.

Beautiful wrapping makes it even more special!!

Last night was "Christmas" at the Smith house Part 1. Miss Ella is "kissing" her new baby. Lots of love being shared by all!!

What do I do next?



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Merry Christmas from "Nana" and Miss Ella!

To be continued....Smith/Kirkland Christmas Part 2 WILL involve SNOW!!!

Happy Trails,

Mtn Mama

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