Christmas Sugar Cookies

Ana, my wee little helper, and I made some simple sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. She wanted to leave some out for Santa, along with a glass of milk and some carrots for the reindeer.

I measured the ingredients and gave the scoop to her and she poured them into the mixing bowl. She wanted to stay a safe distance when I was beating the butter and sugar as a few flecks started flying around... but, we managed to make the cookie dough and refrigerate it without too much mess.

Then, after a couple of hours, I rolled out the dough and cut shapes with the Christmas themed cookie cutters and Ana patiently and enthusiastically decorated every one of the 3-dozen-odd cookies we made with this batch of dough!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger powder+nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Sprinkles and other decorative things (optional)

Preparation

1. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer till smooth and creamy
2. add beaten egg and mix some more till fluffy
3. add the flour, baking powder and flavoring spices and stir or knead to form a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hrs
4. then, roll out a small portion of the dough to ¼ inch thick (keeping the rest refrigerated until ready to roll out) and cut into favorite cookie shapes, decorate with sprinkles if desired, and arrange in an ungreased cookie sheet
5. bake in 350°F oven for about 7-9 minutes till edges are a bit crisp, take out of oven and leave on the hot cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool