For the past two years my three-year-old daughter and I have baked a batch of Christmas sugar cookies around the holiday season.  We take one night and make the cookies and decorate them.  It is such a blast!  These are memories I will cherish forever…..they don’t turn out super pretty but they were made with extra love and laughter! 

This year we made these sugar cookies:

Fabulous Sugar Cookies
Found at goodthingscatered by Ashlee
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp lemon zest
5 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Powdered sugar, for rolling
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes.
-Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly.
-Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
-Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time.
-Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
-Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away. You will need plenty of powdered sugar for this. 
-Great cookie sheet well or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.
-Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.

Then we decorated our cookies with this icing (In the past we have always used a cream cheese frosting which is GREAT…but this year I came across this recipe at goodthings catered and had to use it because I adore honey!!!

Honey Cinnamon Frosting
Everyday Food
Ingredients
1 1/4 c. confectioners’ sugar (I had to use an extra 1/4-1/2Cup)
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp honey
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
-In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and ground cinnamon until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes.  Be sure to beat the frosting for the full 4-5min to get all of the ingredients incorporated well.   Add more confectioners’ sugar if needed.

*This is a wonderful frosting recipe and I will definitely be keeping it in my recipe binder but it was a bit too much with the sugar cookie.  I think in the future we will stick to using a cream cheese frosting. 

Only down side to annual Christmas cookie night……..WE HAVE SPRINKLES EVERYWHERE!!

I’m off to enjoy a cup of tea and an extra sweet sugar cookie.