The recipe I have for our Christmas cookies is one the one I grew up on. I have no idea where it originated from or how it came about. It might be really widely known but I'm going to share it anyways! As well as a bunch of fun pictures of us making them together we our best friends, Leah and Zoe!
"The Best Ever Christmas Cookies"
Dough Recipe:
-2 sticks of butter
-1 cup of sugar
-1 egg
-2.5 cups of all purpose flour
-2 tablespoons of orange juice
-1 tablespoon of vanilla
-1 teaspoon of baking powder
Directions:
-Now I'm sure there's a "proper way" of combining these ingredients. But because I'm not an educated baker, I honestly just mix them all together in no particular order.
-After it is all mixed, separate in half into two gallon zip lock baggies.
-Refrigerate for 2-3hrs until firm
-Once firm, preheat oven to 400
-Roll out and use desired cookie cutters
-Bake 8-10 minutes*
*now, they used to cook in about 8 minutes in my old oven. However, 8 minutes in my new oven burned the crap out of them. They only take about 6 minutes in this oven, so I would start keeping an eye on them around 5 minutes.
As for the thickness, I'm going to pull a "mom move" here and say that I just eye it. If you're nervous that you made it too thin, just keep a closer eye on it in the oven.
I made 2 batches of this but we ended up using 1.5 of it. I saved half of one batch to make after Christmas.
Now for the best part! The homemade frosting!
Frosting Recipe:
-4 cups powdered sugar
-1 stick of butter
-3-4 tablespoons of milk (this one you sort of have to eye yourself. If the mixture is too lumpy, just keep adding small amounts of milk until you get a smoother consistency)
-2 teaspoons of vanilla
I made two batches of frosting.
Once it's made, separate the frosting into separate cups or bowls. Then add food coloring to the mixtures so you can have different options to choose from!
This year we paired the kids up so that they were sharing a set of frosting cup colors. Each pair of kiddos got a handful of colors. Presley, Leah, and Sawyer shared a set. Easton and Zoe shared a set. Then the twins shared a set as well. We knew the older 3 girls wouldn't lick spoons. It was a toss up with Easton and Zoe on whether or not they would. Then we for sure knew the twins would lick their spoons!
We added some sprinkles to cups too so they could share those. We basically just let them go to town on whatever their little minds could think of. Some of them were very dainty in how they spread the frosting and how many sprinkles they put on. While a few others just loaded the cookies with a pound of sprinkles each. It was soooo funny and so cute watching them!
If you don't have a tried and true Christmas cookie recipe, give this one a shot! Let me know how it turns out for you :)
Making memories with your best friends was the highlight of this entire night. We're thankful to have friends who are more like family.
I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas next week!
xoxo,
