Thick, Soft Christmas Cookies

These cookies are so delicious!  My mom made these almost every Christmas for our family.  I still have fond memories of helping her roll out the dough, cut out shapes and sneaking pieces of excess dough (it's so yummy!).  I decided to make these for my first time for a Christmas party we went to at our friends'.  The original recipe makes about 9 dozen, so I thought maybe to do 3/4 of the recipe.  And then I ended up with like, 100 cookies.  It probably was because my cookie cutters weren't very big.  But, no matter!  Our friends will just enjoy a bunch of cookies for Christmas.

The frosting was always my favorite part, because my mom did several different flavors and colors.  Usually green peppermint trees, red cherry or strawberry bells, yellow lemon stars, etc.  For the party, I did: green peppermint trees, red cherry candy canes, yellow lemon stars, blue/purple/white almond snowflakes!

Cookies
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. Crisco
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
6 c. flour

1. Mix ingredients in order.  Make sure the batter is light and fluffy before adding the flour.  Also, use the whisk attachment for the ingredients before the flour, then switch to the paddle attachment.  It makes it much easier.
2.  Let dough chill in the fridge for awhile, up to an hour.
3.  On a floured surface, roll out the dough.  Cut with cookie cookies.  Place on cookie sheets (air-cushioned ones are amazing) lined with parchment paper (the best baking tool ever).
4.  Bake at 325-degrees for 8 minutes.  Let cool on pan a few minutes before using a spatula to move to cooling racks.

Frosting
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 Tbl. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (or other flavors)
4 - 5 drops green food coloring (or other colors)

[to do 4 different colors, do about 1/2 c. sugar, 2 Tbl. melted butter, 1/2 Tbl. milk, 1/8 tsp. extract, and 2 drops food coloring]

1.  Blend powdered sugar and butter.
2.  Add other ingredients to taste and color preference.  Also, you will probably need to add a bit of milk every now and then to keep the frosting spreadable.

ready to start frosting!

yum!

double yum!