Following the Christmas cookie theme that I began two three days ago, I am posting my second old family recipe for sugar cookies and their festive coloured decor.

The best part about making my old family recipes over here in France, is searching for the ingredients. One would assume that what is sold in North America is sold over here and vice versa. Not true. The baking isle of the grocery store looks quite different over here and has many different ingredients, as well as lacks a few of the ingredients that I am so accustomed to using for baking (like baking soda!!). But when I do find an ingredient that is in the original recipe it feels like an accomplishment in itself and I forever embed the French name of it into my head! I love the fact that over here I don’t just have a choice of a few sugars but what seems like 10 or 15 different kinds of sugars depending on my mood. The same goes with flours!

This post is has very detailed steps but making them is a cinch!

For the actual cookie (opposed to the icing on top), you will need:Flour, sugar, butter, milk, baking powder, one egg yolk and salt.

Begin by adding the flour into a bowl…

Along with the salt…

And baking powder…

Stir everything together and because the separate ingredients lose their own identity as soon as you drop them in (because they are all white, in case you didn’t get that) make sure you combine everything very well!

Now put this flour mixture somewhere else and grab a smaller bowl.

Add the butter to this bowl…

And the sugar…

Cream them together. I am using pure arm strength for this because I really don’t want to invest in an electric mixer when I know that I’ll be going home. So arm strength it is. Good thing I’ve been running lately. Oh wait, Max always tries to remind me that running doesn’t strengthen my arms, whenever I try to pull  the “I’m so strong now because I run, watch what I can lift (replace verb with any other activity requiring strength)”.

Ok, so I don’t have a lot of arm strength and so I cheat a little for the creaming without an electric mixer bit. Yes, I cheat. I heat the butter in the microwave for 20 seconds. GASP! It works well, I must say.

Next mix in the egg yolk…

Now bring back that other bowl you set aside. You know, the one with the flour in it.

Scoop up half of this egg mixture and add it into the flour…

Now add half of the milk into the flour mixture…

Stir it up and repeat those last two steps by adding the rest of the egg mixture and then the rest of the milk…

I had to get my hands in there…

Form the dough into a ball…

Cover it with something…

And put it in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes, but you can definitely keep it in there for longer.

Take it out and put it on a lightly floured surface…

Roll it out…

…until it is 1/4 inch thick or so…

Now cut out the shapes you want your cookies to be. I am just using a glass because I didn’t want to invest in Christmas shaped cut-outs while abroad but feel free to use anything you want!

Place them on a baking sheet and bake that am 350 degrees F for 5-8 minutes…

In the meantime…

Let’s make the icing!!

You will need icing sugar, food colouring (red, and green) and milk.

Begin by adding icing sugar to 2 bowls. I never measure but just fill it half full or so…

In one bowl I add 3-4 drops of red food colouring and in the other bowl (because I don’t have green food colouring) I add 2 drops of blue…

And two drops of yellow food colouring…

Now add 2 tablespoons of milk to start. You made need to add more milk depending on how much icing sugar you put in the bowl, but stir it up first and then decide. Icing sugar can turn from solid to liquid with a matter of 4 extra drops of liquid…

Voila!

Take the cookies out of the oven…

Ice them while they are still hot but be careful not to break them in half while you are doing this. If you ice them when they are hot, they will look really shiny and pretty by the time they cool down.

I also add a small sprinkle of vermicelli for good luck!

And that’s everything. Don’t eat too many before Christmas!![amd-zlrecipe-recipe:38]

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