Christmas Sugar Cookies

Christmas sugar cookies are probably the hardest thing to get just right. They take trial and error depending on your oven, and your mixer. Generally speaking, there are two types: those that use butter and those that use shortening. You'll need a full size stand mixer to make this dough, as it's just too thick and dense for a hand mixer. Putting it to chill in the fridge is very important; the best way to do that is to form it into a ball or loaf, and wrap it in saran wrap.

When baking, take them out of the oven just BEFORE the edges turn brown and they'll be firm but soft. If you cook until the edges turn brown you'll have a crispy cookie that will end up hard in a day. 

For the frosting the best bet is to NOT make it homemade. Instead buy containers of vanilla frosting. Don't buy "white" frosting as that just tastes sugary. Be sure to get "vanilla," and it'll compliment any cookie well. One container is good to be separated into 3 sections for 3 colors. Don't forget to leave one as white also. 

((Until you're ready to try this recipe you can still make sugar cookie cutouts. Buy a package of sugar cookie mix and look for one that has specific changes to the directions on the back for rolling out the dough.))