Photo by Marie Aromin

Ingredients

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. First sift all your dry ingredients together. Your dry ingredients are: flour, baking powder, and salt. (Don’t put in the sugar).  See our new Grizz Dictionary if you do not know what sifting means.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter (or margarine) and the sugar together, until it is light and fluffy. (See Grizz Dictionary for help).

3. Once you have creamed them together, beat (or stir/mix) the egg into the bowl, and then blend in the vanilla.

4. Now you mix in the dry ingredients to the other mixture. Do this gradually. Try this by pouring ½ of the dry ingredients in, stir until moistened, then add ½ of what is left, stir again, then add the rest. 

5. Now make sure all the dough is together (no chunks) and put saran wrap over the bowl. Chill this for about 2 hours.

6. After your two hours is up, make sure you preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Now, you can roll out your dough, it is always suggested into ¼ inch thickness, but it does not really matter (just watch the time in the oven). Once rolled out, you can then cut it into desired shapes, or just make nice round ones.

**I suggest using a flat oven tray, and using parchment paper (so you don’t have to clean up!). Put the paper on to the tray. Then add your dough, make sure you leave room between dough so it can spread in the oven.

7. When the oven is nice and toasty, put your tray with cookies inside (remember to change from preheat to bake!). The cookies may take from 5 to 8 minutes to bake, depending on its thickness. One way to tell it is done is if the edges of the cookies are turning a golden color.

Take your cookies out~ Now you can add frosting, sprinkles, and whatever you would like! Go crazy!

*Tip*: You can also dye your cookies by adding food coloring to the dough. Or, you can also roll sprinkles into the dough before baking as well. Also, you can buy baking sheets (parchment paper) at any place that sells baking items. But make sure the paper says it can go in the oven. You can only maybe use one sheet twice at the most, then you’ll have to replace it with a new one.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed this week's intro to the holidays! And remember, I'm always available for taste testing cookies~ ^_^" -Marie Aromin

Take a look at our new Grizz Dictionary!