This recipe has been used by mother and myself since I could walk. No Pillsbury rolls for me and my brother! (I love Pillsbury roll cookies!) I have fond memories of sitting around the table painstakingly applying the colored sugars, my brother neatly fitting them into the lines (the first signs of his compulsion for orderliness?). I remember coveting the Rudolph cookies with the cinnamon button nose; the ones with the bottom browned just a little more than the others.

My mother still makes them several times a year, even though we’re all out of the nest. I suspect, when I have a wee one someday, that I will make them with him or her and mom, too. I can promise you, that if you don’t skimp on ingredients (yes, butter is an absolute must. Remember, margarine is literally one carbon off of plastic. Yuck!), that you will have a new family favorite recipe for your roll out cutter cookies.

Enjoy! They’re fantastic with coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Do them with sugars or royal icing. It’s up to you!

Butter or Sugar Cookies

• 3 ¾ cups sifted flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1-teaspoon salt
• 1-cup butter or margarine
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375°F. Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream butter sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly mix in dry ingredients until just blended (lowest speed if you use a mixer). If your kitchen is very hot, wrap dough in wax paper and chill for 1 hour so it will roll more easily. Roll ¼ of dough at a time on lightly floured board to 1/16”-⅛” thickness and cut with plain or fluted cutters (a 2” or 3” size is good). Transfer to lightly greased baking sheets with a spatula, spacing cookies 2” apart. If you like, brush with milk and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake in top 1/3 of over 8-9 minutes until pale tan. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Re-roll and cut trimmings.

For softer cookies:

Roll dough ⅛”-¼” thick and cut with a 3” cutter; bake as directed 10-12 minutes until edges are just golden.

For slice-and-bake Cookies:

Shape dough into a log about 2” in diameter, then chill several hours until firm or freeze. Slice ¼”thick and back about 10 minutes until firm but not brown.

About 55 calories per cookie

Decorative cookies:

If fancy cutouts are to be made, increase amount of flour in basic recipe by about ½ cup (there will be less breakage while you decorate cookies). Roll and cut cookies. (About 60 calories per cookie.)

Makes about seven (7) dozen