Sugar Cookies

Okay it's my last Christmas cookie post.  Promise.  But I wasn't joking when I said I went into a Christmas cookie baking extravaganza the week before we went on vacation.  Besides the gingerbread cookies, and experimenting with royal icing, I also made these roll-out sugar cookies.  We decorated these with royal icing too, even though there is a frosting recipe attached, which I will post.

This recipe came from my dad's old boss (in fact the recipe is handwritten in Dad's handwriting on an index card, and is titled "Jeff Melvin's X-mas cookies" - I had to ask my mom who Jeff Melvin was.).  Apparently it was his grandmother's recipe, and I can attest to the fact that his grandmother must have been a great baker.  These sugar cookies are really good; crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside, sweet but not too sweet, buttery and delicious.  Top them with royal icing, and you've really got something amazing on your hands.  Or, in your hands, I guess.  Hopefully.

Recipe:

Jeff Melvin's X-mas Sugar Cookies
from Jeff Melvin's grandma :)


Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups flour

Instructions:

1) Mix butter and sugar.  Add milk and soda mixture, and well-beaten eggs.

2) Add vanilla, salt, cream of tartar, and 3 cups flour.  Mix.

3) Add 2 cups flour, and more if necessary.  Chill overnight, or at least 2 hours.

4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out onto floured counter.  Cut into desired shapes.  Bake for 10-12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets.

Frosting:
Whip 1/2 pound butter.  Add 2 pounds confectionary sugar.  Mix and add 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add boiling water 1 teaspoon at a time until spreadable.
*frosting recipe can be cut in half and still have lots left, as my mother's handwritten note says!