Another Great Christmas Cookie Recipe

To get the same look of these special cookies you will need three types of snowflake cookie cutters.
But, you can use just about any type of cookie cutter in your pantry. 

Recipe for Sugar Cookies

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks)unsalted butter
2 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and zest of 2 lemons
1/4 cup fine sanding sugar, for decorating (optional)

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs.
3. Add flour mixture and blend on low speed until thoroughly combined. Stir in vanilla or lemon juice and zest.
4. TO ADD COLOR: divide dough into thirds, remove two sections from mixing bowl and set each on wax paper. Add a few drops of food coloring to each section and mix gently until the color is uniform throughout the dough. Repeat for each color.
5. Wrap each section of dough in plastic (or the entire batch of dough) and chill for about 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 325°. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes.
7. Transfer to un-greased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Remove from refrigerator and decorate with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until edges just start to brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
8. Cool on wire racks. May be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
9. Decorate the cookies with a thin layer of butter cream / confectioners sugar frosting or royal icing. Pipe decorative icing around the edges and to create a design on each cookie.

Here is a link to a different web site with frosting recipes and more Christmas cookie ideas.

Confectioners Sugar Glaze Icing Recipe

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract

Stir milk into sugar. Add vanilla. Drizzle on cookies. May be thickened with more confectioner's sugar or thinned with more milk or other flavored liquids. YIELD: 1/2 cup. You can also use the glaze from King Arthur Flour. But be careful how much water you use otherwise, it will be runny. It dries hard after about an hour and is ideal for cut-out cookies or those to be stored in a jar.
Sugar Cookie Recipe © 2004 Martha Stewart Living.com & All rights reserved. Cookie Photograph by: Victor Schrager

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