My family has used this recipe since I was a small child. I’ve reduced the amount of sugar that the original recipe called for. The cookie gets plenty of sweetness from the frosting. For the swap, I decorated some of the cookies and then I made packs of plain cookies, icing and sprinkles so that each family can have fun decorating at home. I also used the colored dough in the middle of the plain dough to make two-toned cookies, and I think this makes them adorable.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 18 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Inactive: | 1 hr |
| Cook: | 8 min |
| Yield: | 30 |
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 18 min |
| Prep: | 10 min |
| Inactive: | 1 hr |
| Cook: | 8 min |
| Yield: | 30 |
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Food coloring
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring
Instructions
- For cookies:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a mixer, beat shortening until soft. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour. Remove half of the dough, leaving the remaining in the mixer. Add a couple of drops of food coloring to the dough in the mixer, until the desired color is achieved and beat until combined. Form each half of the dough into disks and wrap in plastic film. Chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness and cut out cookies with cookie cutters. Transfer to an ungreased cookie sheet and bake until firm, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
- For frosting:
- In a mixer, beat butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, a very small amount at a time. Divide frosting into several small bowls. Add a different color of food coloring to the frosting in each bowl. Glaze each cookie with a different color frosting.
Reviews
Baker Beware. The cookies were terrible – dry with no flavor. We thought the frosting might save them, but it just made them worse. In the end, they ended up in the garbage and the only way to get the taste out of our mouths was to drink a cocktail. Waste of time and waste of sugar. I’d give it zero stars if I could.
I did not try the cookies because of others reviews, but made the icing. i needed to add more powdered sugar, and i also added a few drops of peppermint flavoring. it adds just a bit of flavor and is great for the holadays.
Sorry but waiting an hour for the dough to come together does not suit my schedule. The cookies are not special enough to demand that kind of time and attention. I tried putting the dough in the freezer for 20 mins but it went too gooey when I tried to roll it out. A plain sugar cookie recipe works much better.
The cookies are dry, nasty, and plain. The icng is ok. but the cookies are BLEH!!
I find the dough much too dry and crumbly to do anything meaningful. I followed the recipie to the letter and got none of the results of the other rave reviews? maybe I am just lucky
didn’t bother with the frosting.
I searched high and low for a recipe that resembled what I could remember of my mothers!! Lo and behold here it is!!!!!
with all the positive reviews on the frosting, I decided to use this with my usual cookie recipe.
It tastes great, but has a strange texture and appearance. I think this has more to do with the butter not being softened enough and not mixing it enough than with the recipe itself.
overall, good stuff.
I was very happy with this recipe. I did a cookie decorating party and everyone thought they were great. I think having less sugar made them good because the frosting was so sweet. I really enjoyed the frosting..quite tasty. I was also suprised to see some negative reponses on this recipe becuase they were really good and my cookies looke picture perfect.
I didn’t make the cookies. I used the frosting with the Cook’s Illustrated cookie recipe. After struggling with frosting for years, this is the answer!
I made these twice and both times they tasted great, but I couldn’t use cut-outs like snowflakes because they would break off easily. Sometimes the dough didn’t want to stick together. The cookies were really good though, and the fact that they have less sugar doesn’t matter because the frosting is so sweet and so good. Made myself sick snacking on just the frosting 😉