Holiday Sugar Cookies
(Westrich family recipe)

Ingredients:

2/3 c. shortening
¾ c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 egg
4 t. milk
2 c. flour
1 ½ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and chill 1 hour.  Roll out onto lightly floured surface and cut into desired shapes.  Bake at 375 degrees 6-7 minutes on lightly greased cookie sheets.

Perfect for all kinds of holiday cookies.  Cut and decorate or ice as desired.

Confectioner’s Icing:
Place 2 cups confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl and stir thoroughly with whisk or pastry blender until fine and soft with no lumps.  Mix in  ½ t. salt, 1 t. vanilla, and enough milk or light cream to bring mixture to  a consistency that is just thin enough to pour.  Do not make it too thin.  Add food coloring to entire batch,  or divide icing batch into several cups and add food coloring to make different colors. 

Place cut and slightly cooled cookies on a cooling rack over a large bowl and pour icing over.

If you prefer to ice cookies the traditional way, just don’t make the frosting quite as thin and use a spatula to ice individual cookies. 

Decorate cookies by sprinkling with colored sugar or other appropriate holiday decorations.  A fun thing to do is to put frosting into a pastry bag and decorate trees and other shapes with garlands, ornaments and stars.  Kids love to decorate cookies this way.

After decorating cookies, place on large plate and let dry.  After that cookies may be stacked and stored in containers or placed in refrigerator.  Cookies may sit out on a cookie tray for a day, but be sure to cover them with aluminum foil.  Don't cover until completely cook and set.  For longer storage use refrigeration.  Cookies freeze well too.