Cutout Cookies: Old World Sugar Cookies

Cookies are delicious. If they weren't, we wouldn't spend so much time making them. Sugar cookies are a staple of the cookie world, so this recipe is very versatile. I like to make fat, large sugar cookies which are more like cakes with lovely icing spread done in fun patterns. These, affectionately called Old World Sugar Cookies, are not hard to accomplish. This recipe makes large cookies, so you'll likely only need a single cookie per person.


Unless they're teenagers. Then they'll need 10 cookies each. Trust me.


Ingredients


1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3 cups all purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
cookie icing in desired colors


Preparation


In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the milk, vanilla, and egg and blend well. Put the electric mixer aside and use a wooden spoon to add flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine until you have a consistent dough to work with. While you can immediately use the dough, refrigerating for 30 minutes to firm up the dough is recommended.


Heat oven to 400°F. Roll out the dough, but not thinly. ¼-inch thickness is standard for these larger cookies, but you can go as large as ½-inch thickness if you like. Larger cookies will make fewer cookies, but I like the larger. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into desired shapes. The ones pictured here are 3-inch circles, but any shape will do.


Place cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake these larger cookies for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 1 minute on the baking sheet, then cool completely on wire racks.


To decorate, use cookie icing (which you can make or buy in squeezable tubes) to draw any pattern you like. I've done basic circles, then used a toothpick to draw the circles into different patterns. You can do any pattern you like.


Allow icing to harden before serving. This recipe makes about 12 larger cookies.