5 Days of Holiday Goodies! Day 1 ~ Soft Batch Sugar Cookies!

This is the time of year that I just love to get in the kitchen and whip up sweet treats to pass out to family and friends as holiday gifts. And I am going to allow myself to be a little big headed here, but my treats are always so well received that everyone looks forward to getting a box of my goodies! Year after year, I tend to stick with the most popular yummies, and I want to share my favorite holiday recipes for your baking pleasure :) For the next 5 days I will have a post of the goodies I tend to pass out each year. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and friends do!

Soft Batch Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter *Real Butter, not margarine*

1/2 cup Crisco Butter Flavor shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking poweder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

additional sugar if desired for sprinkling over cookies.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a mixing bow, cream butter, shortening and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add to the creamed mixture.

Roll out dough to desired thickness. (Mine are usually around 1/4 inch thick.) Using cookie cutters, press firmly into the dough until the cookie has passed all the way through. 

Place each cut out on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes. *The cookies will look like they aren’t completely baked. This is when I like to pull them out, then let them finish baking on the cookie sheet out of the oven. You will get a much softer cookie this way! If you like, sprinkle additional sugar on cookies while they are still cooling. If you are going to ice them, skip this step.

Let cookies cool completely, then decorate with icing as desired. (I use the Royal Icing recipe found on Wilton's website)

 Enjoy!

What's your favorite cookie?