a party around cookies!

We have been cookie decorating parties over the last year.  What does that mean?  That means I make a lot of sugar cookies, cut into all different shapes, and other people come and decorate them.  The adults are really the ones who have the most fun and tendency to go in strange and interesting directions.  We had another one for Halloween.  It was a lot of fun.  

Here is the sugar cookie recipe.

Sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, put the butter and sugar.  Cream together until smooth.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.  Add the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.  Mix well.

If you can, this dough rolls better if  you can put it in the refrigerator for an hour or overnight.  Otherwise, use lots of flour for rolling!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll the dough to a quarter or half inch thickness.  The thinner the dough, the crisper the cookie.

Using appropriate shapes for your event, cut out cookies.  Or you can roll the dough into logs and slice (great to go with tea (tea for me!!!!  no us precious, us.  yes, yes us! that is right, us) And yes, we really do the tea comment around here.)

Bake for 6 to 8  minutes or until the edges are brown.

Decorate to your hearts content and eat.  

I took these into work the day after Halloween, so the cookies were two days old.  A large tin full!  They were all gone by lunch time.  These are good cookies.

Frosting tomorrow!