Cut-out cookies have been a Christmas tradition for centuries. Originally they were made of gingerbread and were a staple of the European Christmas fairs.
I don’t make cut-out cookies every year. Sometimes I skip the cookies altogether, and once I bought pre-made cookies so we could decorate them. But they didn’t taste right.
They weren’t made with my mom’s sugar cookie recipe.
Now I always use her recipe.
I recently checked with my mom to learn the source of the recipe. We knew she’d been using it since I was young, and she thought it might have come from her mother. However, it turns it’s the Sugar Cookie recipe from the 1965 printing of the Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook (1953 edition)!
Since the recipe is protected by copyright, I won’t reprint it. But I can tell you that it has several unusual ingredients: shortening, milk, and orange peel! The citrus tang balances the sugar and makes for an awesome cookie.
A couple years ago my sons decorated Christmas cookies (see above photos). I love how they put their own spin on the cookies! I bet none of you have seen an Ugly Christmas Sweater on a dinosaur or a cookie Star Wars Storm Trooper or Star Trek Expendable Crewman!
What traditional food do you eat at Christmas or Hanukkah? Do you add your own modern spin on them? Do you use family recipes? Do you use old cookbooks?