Kristie McNealy, MD

It’s been a crazy week, filled with two birthdays, Christmas shopping and plenty of packing and shipping.  I wanted to take a few minutes to wish you all a merry Christmas and share my all time favorite Christmas cookie recipe.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, I’ve had a hand in baking and decorating these cutout butter cookies for Christmas.  I remember making them at my grandma’s house when I was a very little girl, then later making them at home with my mom after my grandparents moved out of state.  It’s a once a year event, and I’ve happily carried on the tradition with my own kids.

This is by far my favorite cutout cookie recipe – not too sickly sweet, and they stay nice and soft.  A single batch will make 18-36 cookies, depending on how thick you roll out your dough, and the sizes of your cookie cutters.  We usually make at least a double batch so we have plenty to eat, gift and leave out for Santa.  These cookies freeze well too, so you can make them in advance next year.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Butter Cookies

• 3/4 c salted butter
• 1/2 c packed brown sugar
• 1 T white sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 c flour

• powdered sugar
• rolling pin
• cookie cutters
• frosting

1.  Cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar.  Then, add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat well.

2.  Add the flour and mix until combined.

3  You can roll out the dough and start working immediately at this point, but the dough is a little easier to work if you allow it to chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

4.  When you ready to cut out your cookies, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Then grab your cookie cutters and rolling pin, and dust your work surface with powdered sugar.

5.  Take a piece of dough about the size of a tennis ball.  Form it into a ball and then place on your work surface.  Flatten slightly with your hand, and then duct the top with powdered sugar.

6.  Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/8-1/4 inch thick.  Since I know my kids are pretty rough on the cookies when we decorate, I stay towards the thicker side.  The important thing is to keep all the cookies in each batch roughly the same thickness so that they cook evenly.

7.  Dip your cookie cutters in powdered sugar and then use them to cut out the dough.

8.  Place cookies on a cookie sheet.  You can use parchment or a silicone mat if you’d like, but I bake these cookies straight on an ungreased cookie sheet without problems.

9.  Bake 5-8 minutes, until light golden brown.  Allow the cokies to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes, and then remove to your counter or a cooling rack to cool completely.

10.  Repeat until all of your cookies have been baked and cooled, then frost and decorate as desired.  We usually use canned frosting, tinted with liquid food coloring.  I know there are better/healthier/more sophisticated ways to do this, but this is how we’ve always done it since I was a little girl.  Let the kids go crazy with sprinkles, colored sugar, redhots, etc before the frosting hardens!

11.  Enjoy!!

Similar Posts:

• Giving Leftovers New Life – Garbage Bread
• Crunchy Granola Bars – Cooking from Scratch
• Making Your Own Frozen Convenience Foods
• Basic Yet Tasty Homemade Bread Recipe