Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone is having a relaxing and happy day. I wasn’t planning on having a post up today, but I was waiting on getting pictures of my Christmas cookies for this post… and then totally didn’t do it. So in the interest of posting my Christmas cookie recipe before the holidays are over, festive pictures of my family’s tree will have to do.
Y’all, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I am not a baker. Math and science have never been my forte so those exact measurements and chemical reactions get me every time. But, in the spirit of the season, I decided to try my hand at my mom’s Christmas cookie recipe.
She’s been making these every year for as long as I can remember and they are the lightest, crispiest sugar cookies ever, perfectly iced with a delicate almond glaze. Plus, they’re the easiest cookie to make, you seriously can’t mess them up.
Christmas Sugar Cookies
2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
4 tsp. milk
2 cups flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Stir in milk. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamy mixture. Divide the dough in half and chill one hour. Roll one half of dough to a thin 1/8″. Use cookie cutters to cut into festive shapes, using confectioner’s sugar as you would normally use flour to keep the dough from sticking to rolling pin. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes. Let cool before icing with recipe below.
Christmas Cookie Glaze
1 egg white
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
Mix ingredients. Add food coloring if desired (I opted for no color and red sprinkles!)