Butter Cookies

I love this recipe because it is so versatile. They can be simple or elegant. You can even make your own variety tins like the danish cookies sold in tins that are abundant at Christmas time. When dough is fluffy and light it makes drop cookies that stay light for days!

Ingredients:
Cream together-
2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar (I use cane sugar instead of beet sugar)

Mix well into creamed mixture-
4 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon lemon extract)

Sift the following ingredients together. Beat into the rest of the ingredients.
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla, mix well. Sift flour and salt together. Beat flour mixture into butter mixture until well mixed. Place 1 ” apart on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 minutes, do not brown cookies. Remove cookies from sheet while still warm. Cool on wax paper or cooling rack.

This recipe can make a variety of cookies. We rolled them out on a floured counter, and cut them into heart shapes. They can be frosted with butter cream frosting, with cinnamon hearts, silver balls, or a tubed frosting. I have sometimes added cinnamon to the frosting.

Cookie Options:

• Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to dough.

•  Replace Vanilla with 2 Teaspoons Pure Lemon..

• Put into a pastry bag with food dye in stripes, down the inside of the bag, so they come out through a large star cake decorating tip. Then they can be piped into fancy shapes. You can also use the star tip to drop a large star blob, and once this is cooked, fill the center with red jelly, jam, or preserves.
  

• The dough can be divided in half and one side dyed another color, or not. Then they can be rolled in long ropes and twisted together and then twisted into candy canes or pretzels. The sprinkled the canes with crushed peppermint candy.

• Make a long roll of the dough and place in wax paper, then chill. Slice into 1/2 inch thick slices and place on un-greased cookie sheet. You can also roll the chilled roll in mini chocolate chips, colored sprinkles, peppermint candy, etc.

• For cookie cutter shapes- chill dough for a few hours and roll our about 1/2 in thickness. These shapes can be decorated as usual, be made into sandwich cookies with pastel icing (you can even add flavoring to the icing) the the edges of the icing can be sprinkled with a topping. These can also be made into ice cream sandwiches.

• Make drop cookies.

• Sometimes we cut the cookies a little thicker and they are much like shortbread cookies. You can roll out the dough and cut with a knife into squares. Then when they come out of the oven sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

• You can also add chopped almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts, or walnuts to the dough or on top of the cookies.

• Make Individual Fresh Fruit Pizzas-  Roll out Cookie dough and cut into large circles or squares. Mix 8oz Cream Cheese into 2 boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding using directions for Pie filling, top with Fresh Fruit! 
  

Topping Options:

• Colored Sugar
• Butter Cream Icing
• Butter Cream Icing with 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Coconut
• Cake decorating candies
• Chopped nuts
• Crushed candy canes
• Jams, jelly, or preserves
• Dipped or drizzled with chocolate
• Chocolates formed in molds and put on cookies when warm and chilled
• Enjoy! These make wonderful Easter and Christmas Cookies. 
• The dough can be dyed green for St. Patrick's Day.