MY KIDS CHRISTMAS CUTOUT COOKIES, EXCEPT WE MADE THEM IN FEBRUARY! SMILE

​My grandkids love to bake and since cookies are yummy anytime during the year, we decided to have fun making them whenever we wanted. Brilliant! The dough is a simple sugar cookie and the icing is made with Merengue Powder, you can find it in any craft store, also at Walmart. The easy icing recipe is in the back of the container.
 
Approximate Prep and Cooking Time: Few hours of Family FUN!
Approximate Cost: $12.00
Difficulty Level:         Easy __X__ Intermediate ____ Advanced
Servings: The number of cookies will vary greatly depending on how thick you roll the dough and the size of your cookie cutters. The smaller cutters will yield more cookies, the larger cutters, less.
INGREDIENTS for the Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened to room temperature ($2.00)
1 cup sugar (.50)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 tsp. almond ($1.00)
1 large egg (.16)
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour ($1.00)
¾ teaspoon baking powder (.10)
¾ teaspoon salt (.10)
 
INGREDIENTS for the Icing*
3 tbsp. Wilton Meringue Powder ($2.00)
4 c. confectioner powder sugar (sifted to prevent lumps) ($1.99)
5 tbsp. water or milk (.50)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or either almond or lemon extract. ($1.00)
 
Food coloring to taste depending on your planned designs (. 15)
sprinkles for decorating (optional) (.50)
For the icing directions follow the container instructions
 
*(this icing recipe makes about 2 ¾ c. of icing for a large number of cookies, and enough to flood them. You can make ½ of this recipe if you want to make few cookies or you can refrigerate the icing for about a week to make more cookies at later time.)
 
DIRECTIONS for the COOKIES
In a bowl with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar and beat until creamy.
Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until totally combined.
In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer half of the dough onto the wrap (be aware that it will be quite sticky).
Wrap, seal tight and mold into a disk.  Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap. 
Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 3 hours. After the chilling time, let the dough rest at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes before rolling it flat.
Meantime, preheat your oven to 350 F.
Use a baking silicon mat or line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.
Dust a clean surface (generously) with flour and bring one of the chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface.  Lightly flour the dough and roll out to 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies). 
Continue to add flour as needed both on top of and under the dough so that it doesn't stick.
Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to your baking sheet. 
Bake on 350 F for 9-10 minutes or until edges begin to turn lightly golden brown.
Allow cookies to cool completely on the cookie sheet before moving to apply frosting.
 
Remember, the icing directions are in the back of the Merengue Powder container.