Cookie Craving

Well it's finally here. The night that I used to look forward to more than any other night of the year, but after many years and years, has become the most dreaded night of the year. Christmas Cookie Night!

It's funny, I seriously used to love decorating all of the cookies. It was a major creative outlet for me. I even would hold cookie decorating parties so we could do it a few times during the holiday season. But something happened along the way. It became a major chore. I don't know if it's because our lives are more hectic than they used to be. Or if it's because it is expected of us. Our families would seriously kill us if we decided to skip this tradition. And believe me, we have tried to many times. Just. Not. Happenin! Oh an I won't even go into the fact that not only do we have to bake and decorate cookies tonight but then we are expected to bake some cookies and leave them undecorated so we can have a separate decorating party with J's family on xmas eve.

Well this year I'm determined to bring the joy back to cookie decorating. Why dread something that used to give us so much joy? We even picked up some new tools to spice things up this year. I'm loving the new Williams-Sonoma Message-in-a-Cookie Holiday Cookie Cutters and I must admit that I'm pretty excited to give them a whirl tonight. Oh and we also get to use one of our wedding gifts, the Williams-Sonoma Marble Rolling Pin. We've been dying to get one of these for years. Let the fun begin!

And in the spirit of sharing, I figured that I'd share with all of you the famous Dawn & Jen's Sugar Cookie recipe. People tell us all the time that it's the best sugar cookie recipe they've ever had so I figure why not spread the love around. It's the same recipe that we gave out to our wedding guests as favors. I think we need to come up with a snapier name for the recipe but for now it'll have to do :)

Dawn & Jen's Sugar Cookies

2 sticks butter (room temp)

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3 c flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

• Use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and sugar until creamy.
• Add the eggs and beat well.
• Beat in vanilla extract.
• In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.
• Beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture slowly, one-third at a time.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Sprinkle flour onto work surface and rolling pin.
• Divide the dough into quarters.
• Roll each quarter to about 1/4" thick.
• Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
• Sprinkle on decoration.
• Bake 5-10 minutes.
• If frosting cookies, bake first, let cool and then frost.

Frosting

1/2 c butter (room temp)

1 lb confectionary sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tbsp. milk

• Place butter in a bowl.
• Add confectionary sugar, vanilla and milk.
• Mix until smooth.
• If frosting is too loose add more confectionary sugar.
• If frosting is too stiff add more milk.
• Add your favorite food coloring or use sprinkles on top of frosting.

And the rest is up to you. Oh I can see those creative juices flowing already :)

Oh and if you have any favorite cookie recipes to share, I'd just love to hear them!

Images: 1, 2-4, 5