Christmas Cookies and Frosting

Does your neighborhood give treats at Christmastime? I do love that part of the holidays! Already we have gotten chocolate drizzled pretzels, hot cocoa, three kinds of fudge, three kinds of cookies, cupcakes and some pecan rolo turtle type treats I've seen on blogs! YUM! Neighbor gifts are also an excellent way to "get rid of" the extra cookies you have to make for Santa, haha!

In years past I have made different kinds of cookies, THIS popcorn and a yummy easy fudge which I will share tomorrow. This year I asked my kids if there is anything in particular they like at Christmas, or simply want to eat. lol! They both voted for cookies they can decorate! That's not exactly specific, beyond needing sprinkles, so I thought I'd try out a few new recipes I found online!

I made cookies using THIS recipe found one the Clover Lane blog.
ETA Recipe:

2 2/3 cup granulated brown sugar*

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix sugar, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat eggs and vanilla into mixture until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon, and gradually blend into sugar ingredents. Chill well. (about an hour at least). Roll dough out on well floured surface. Cut into shapes. 

Bake on lightly sprayed cookie sheets at 350* for 8-10 minutes.

*except I couldn't find granulated brown sugar. I used half granulated white sugar and half regular brown sugar.
I got 64 cookies with our cookie cutters. They're super easy to roll out and we all liked the taste of them a lot! Mine turned out flat, chewy and with crispy edges, like this:

(Christmas trees, snowmen, teddy bears, stars) and this:

My husband didn't love the idea of a glaze so I used our stand-by frosting recipe (found below), and the random assortment of sprinkles we had in the house. The kids had a blast cutting out the shapes, sneaking bits of dough and putting the sprinkles on! Looks like a merry Christmas!

Butter Frosting:

1/3 cup margarine or butter (I usually use margarine)

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2-3 Tbsp milk*

1 tsp vanilla

In large bowl cream margarine. Add remaining ingredients. Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency. If necessary, thin with additional milk.

Can frost 9x13 inch cake or 2-layer round cake

For chocolate butter frosting blend

1/3 cup cocoa powder

OR 2 envelopes pre-melted unsweetened baking chocolate flavor  

OR 2 squares (2 oz) melted unsweetened chocolate

into creamed margarine.

*This time I ended up using about 5 tbsp milk...I don't know why!! And it frosted all 64 cookies with a perfect thin layer.