Recipe: Rolled Sugar Cookies

When I was little, my mom would often make cookies like these for me to hand out at school for a pot luck, Christmas party, Valentine's Day, etc. They were always the hit of the party and I always had none to take back with for the walk home after school. So I've tried this recipe several times and I still don't know how my mom was able to scrape away the excess dough without pre-rolling it and stiffening it again. I guess moms are just like that... kitchen goddesses. I've also added the amaretto and orange zest since I love these flavors in cookies. My mom use to press colored sugar onto the top of her cookies but I prefer mine plain. I feel less guilty about eating the cookie if I don't see actual sugar teasing me atop the cookies. Eating these cookies brings back memories of me being mommy's little assistant cutting out cookies and latter enjoying them with a warm cup of cocoa.

Ingredients

• ¾ cups of softened butter
• 1 cups of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-teaspoon vanilla extract
• a few dashes of amaretto
• zest of a small orange
• 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1-teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, vanilla, amaretto and orange zest. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt until dough comes together. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
2. Break dough into smaller portions and roll out to desired thickness on a parchment paper. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap and place back in the fridge to stiffen. If you don’t have a wide/deep enough fridge shelf then roll up the rolled out dough and place back in the fridge.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). After the dough has stiffened up, take the dough back out and roll out any creases if you rolled up the dough previously. Cut out the shapes that you like and peel away the excess dough. Roll this dough and repeat step 2 if you would like to make extra cookies with this dough.
4.  Place cookies 1 inch apart on cookie sheets.
5. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.