Old Fashioned Butter Cookies With Butter Frosting Food

OLD FASHIONED BUTTER COOKIES WITH BUTTER FROSTING

Steps:

• Beat 1 cup softened butter with white sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Beat egg, whole milk, and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract into butter mixture until smooth. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and gradually stir dry ingredients into moist ingredients to make a smooth dough. Chill dough in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Dust a pastry cloth or kitchen towel generously with flour.
• Divide dough into thirds and roll each third out 1/8-inch thick on the prepared pastry cloth. Cut shapes out of the rolled dough with cookie cutters. Place cookies onto ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are barely browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to finish cooling on a wire rack.
• Beat 1 cup softened butter, 3 cups confectioners' sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract, and evaporated milk in a bowl until smooth. Gradually stir 6 cups confectioners' sugar into mixture until combined. Beat frosting hard until fluffy; stir in additional evaporated milk or confectioners' sugar if needed to reach desired consistency. Frost cooled cookies.

OLD FASHIONED BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift dry ingredients together. Place in food processor and process a few seconds to mix. Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces and place in food processor. Process 20 to 30 seconds until butter is cut in evenly. Add egg yolks and vanilla and process until mixture forms a ball. Remove, divide into 4 equal balls, flatten each and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
• Preheat over to 375 degrees. Cut aluminum foil to fit approximately 4 cookie sheets. Using a well floured pastry cloth and rolling pin cover, roll 1 section of dough, leaving the rest refrigerated until needed. Roll evenly approximately 1/8" thick (or actually 1/8" thin). Using small size cookies cutters, cut cookies (they should remain in the cutter, then tap out on to the foil lined cookie sheets). Place cookies 1/2 inch apart. Sprinkle with sugar crystals. (Easier to do one whole sheet red, next sheet green). Reroll scraps and roll out, trying to handle dough as little as possible. Don't reroll dough a third time, use another refrigerated section of dough. Bake approximately 8 minutes, one sheet at a time. Cookies should be slightly golden, remove quickly as once they start to brown, they could burn fast. Immediately slide foil off cookie sheet and leave cookies on foil to cool. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in a wax paper lined, cookie tin. Cookies reach their taste potential after a day and will stay fresh in a cookie tin approximatelly 3 weeks. Actual yield is based on the size cookie cutter used. I use a very small size, approximately 1 1/2 " across.

OLD-FASHIONED CUT OUT FROSTED BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg, milk and vanilla.
• Now blend in the dry ingredients flour, baking powder and salt until dough is formed. If desired you can chill for an hour for easier handling. I've never done this and the dough always rolled out fine for me.
• Divide the dough in thirds. On a lightly floured board roll out the dough to about 1/8th inch thickness. Using cookie cutters cut into shapes and place on a cookie sheet.
• Bake in oven for about 5 to 8 minutes until lightly golden brown. Cool on a rack.
• SPECIAL NOTE: You can use vanilla extract but I think vanilla paste makes these cookies taste even more special using vanilla paste.
• I use vintage Christmas cookie cutters where i found on Ebay. I bought vintage cooper cookie cutters instead of the aluminum ones due to safety concerns regarding the use of aluminum. But you can use modern cookie cutters and you can make these anytime not just for Christmas.
• Please see my recipe for Creamy Vanilla Frosting where I will be giving some decorating suggestions. =).