Yield varies greatly depending on the cutters used
These holiday cookies are a family tradition that now, with my two great-grandsons, has stretched across eight generations. I have over 100 different cutters, some dating from the late 19th century. We drag out the cutters for every conceivable holiday. There are Santa’s, Christmas trees, stars, |
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angels and camels for Christmas; witches, jack-o-lanterns, bats, cats and ghosts for Halloween, assorted hearts and shamrocks for Valentine’s day and St. Patrick’s day and flags and Uncle Sam for the glorious 4th. I have cutters in the shapes of dinosaurs, butterflies, flowers, cars, airplanes, autumn leaves, and flowers. These are not the best tasting cookie ever produced, with their sugar sweet icing, but, in our family, it wouldn’t be a holiday without them. This recipe makes a lot of cookies because at our house the holiday cookies are a real production. Excess dough may be frozen.
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla flavoring
2 tablespoons baking powder
5 to 6 cups of all-purpose flour
Cream the butter and sugar together and add the eggs, vanilla and baking powder. Mix well. Begin adding the flour, stirring after each addition. The end result should be a stiff dough. Chill the dough for at least thirty minutes before making the cookies. While the dough is chilling preheat the oven to 350°.
To form cookies, sprinkle a flat surface with flour, remove a gob of dough from the bowl and knead gently in the flour. Sprinkle a bit more flour on your work surface and pat the dough out into a round about ½-inch thick. Begin gently rolling the dough. Roll a few times, then give the dough a quarter turn. This makes sure the dough is not stuck to the surface and helps keep it symmetrical. Give the dough 2 or 3 more rolls and then turn it again. Continue in this manner until the dough is approximately ¼-inch thick. Now, dip your cutter into some flour and start cutting out your cookies.
It is important to place the cutter close to the place where the previous cookie was cut. This way you get as many cookies out of the piece of dough as possible and have less wasted dough. You will gather up the scraps, add another gob of dough from the bowl, knead lightly and roll out again, but each time you work the dough it gets a little tougher. That’s why you want to get as many cookies out of each rolling as possible. Place the cut cookies about ½-inch apart on baking sheets that have been lined with baker’s_parchment. Put in the oven and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until a pale buff color. Remove from the oven and allow to remain on the baking sheets for several minutes before using a spatula to remove and place on trays to cool completely before decorating.
 
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