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When it comes to baking and decorating sugar cookies for Christmas in my family, we do it assembly line style.  Each person in the family is in charge of a certain aspect of the baking and decorating process. That way we can make A LOT of cookies in a short amount of time.  My favorite job is decorating and each decorator is tasked with one shape so that you can get creative and try all kinds of fun decorations.  I personally like doing the Christmas trees, but my sister likes during the star and holiday ornament shapes.  We actually use a couple different recipes for sugar cookies depending on whether we want crisp cookies that are decorated with colored sugars or egg washes (shared in this post) or thicker more chewy cookies that can hold up to iced decorations.  If you are planning to make thousands of cookies like we do, I would recommend going with the easy-to-decorate cookies that are decorated with small candies and colored sugars.  Icing takes too much time when you are doing that many cookies.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda

Using a large stand mixer or glass bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Add egg, vanilla and almond flavoring; mixing thoroughly. Sift flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together and stir in to the wet ingredients. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Prior to removing the dough from the refrigerator, preheat oven to 375°F. Divide dough in half and roll out on lightly floured pastry board. Roll thin (1/4" to 3/8" thick), but thick enough to cut with a holiday shaped cookie cutter. Dip cutter in flour before each cutting. Use care so that you can cut as many cookies from each rolling as possible. Use a spatula to move cookies from pastry board to a lightly greased cookie sheet. Remaining dough can be rolled again to make more cookies.  Add cookie decorations such as red hot candies, jimmies, colored sugars, confetti candy, M&M's, and nuts. Bake in 375° F oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until delicately golden. Remove from baking sheet and cool on a rack.  Store cookies in an airtight container.

My Tips - These sugar cookies are light and crisp in texture so I recommend decorating them with colored sugars and confetti candies rather than a heavy icing.  I found this EXCELLENT video with fun tips and ideas for decorating holiday Christmas cookies with candies, colored sugars, gourmet nuts and more.

Find more Christmas cookie recipes!

New for 2009!  Every year we try to add fun and exciting new products to our Christmas cookie line and this year, one of our best finds was this adorable 13" tall snowman tower.

We've filled it with a dozen of our favorite holiday cookie assortment that include snowman face and Christmas tree cut-out cookies, oatmeal, classic chocolate chip, peanut butter, holiday M & M and more.

In the middle tier, we add a bag of delicious caramel corn and in the head of the snowman tower, we add 25 delectable chocolate candies.

This is one holiday tower that a small office or family will definitely enjoy!

Buy the Holiday Snowman Goodie Tower today!

Find more Christmas cookie gifts to give to your loved ones!

Another family favorite are these peanut blossom cookies...they are best served with a cup of coffee as the cookies are crisp and crunchy (as opposed to soft and chewy).  I prefer to use Chocolate Hershey Kisses in the center of each cookie because I like the combination of milk chocolate and peanut butter.  Another tip is to heat them up in the microwave for maybe 10 seconds so that the chocolate gets a little melty.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Hershey's chocolate kisses or dark chocolate baking stars

Cream together the shortening, peanut butter, and sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well (I use a kitchen aid mixer for this process). On a large piece of waxed paper or in a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt) and then add them a bit at a time to the creamed mixture. Mix well between each dry ingredient addition.

Shape by rounded teaspoonful into balls (I prefer to use a #80 cookie scoop to achieve a consistent size). Roll each cookie ball in sugar and place them on ungreased cookie sheet. Be sure to leave a couple inches between the balls so that they don't run into each other. Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes. Remove cookies from the oven and place a solid Hershey's Kiss or Chocolate Star on the top of each one pushing down slightly (so that cookie cracks around the edge). Return the cookies to the oven and bake an additional 2 to 4 minutes. Remove cookies from the baking sheet and cool on a rack.

If you enjoyed this recipe, be sure to try these Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Cookies.

Well I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away.  I don't know what Black Friday means at your house, but at mine, it is the kick-off for holiday baking.  Since I was a little girl, my Mom and Aunts have baked up thousands of goodies to share with all of their family, friends and co-workers.  Over the next several weeks, I am going to share my family's favorite Christmas cookies. First up on the list are some Christmas wreaths that my Mom happily recreates every year.  They are my Dad's favorite holiday "cookie" after all!  This recipe is simple enough that the kids can even help make them.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
30 marshmallows
3 1/2 cups corn flakes
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. + green food coloring
Red cinnamon candies

In a double boiler, melt the marshmallows and butter together stirring until smooth.  Add the vanilla and green food color to the mixture.  Note that the key to this recipe is getting the marshmallow mixture green enough to make the shaped cookies look like wreaths. Lastly, add the corn flakes. Blend thoroughly so that corn flakes are fully coated with the marshmallow mixture (we use our hands). While warm (cool slightly), use tablespoon-sized balls of cornflakes shaping them into wreaths with greased fingers. Place on waxed paper or ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate with the red hot candies. Makes 15 to 20 wreaths depending on size.

My Tips - We normally quadruple the batch so we melt the marshmallows and butter in a huge dutch oven on low heat stirring constantly (that way we have enough room to add the corn flakes).  I think we make about 5 quadruple batches total. In addition, my Mom uses way more than a ¼ tsp to get the dark green color shown in the photo.

If you're looking for more Christmas cookie recipes, try some of the following:

• Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Cookies
• Christmas Cookie Decorating 101
• Christmas Spritz Cookies
• Holiday Sugar Cookies

This cold-weather favorite is making a comeback at our house as snow flurries are in our forecast!  The casserole takes a little while to put together, but I've made it up to 2 days in advance (like on a Sunday night) and popped it in the oven when I get home from work for a great midweek dinner.  I don't own a double boiler so I cook the soup and milk over low heat in a regular saucepan and stir it constantly to prevent scalding.

Note: It's not the typical item for it, but it's a great idea for a Italian basket that they will eat right away.

Potato Pizza Casserole

• 1 lb ground beef
• 4-5 cups of sliced potatoes
• 1 can Cheddar Cheese soup
• 1 can Tomato soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• Pepperoni
• Parmesan Cheese
• Mozzarella Cheese

1. Brown ground beef in a frying pan.  Drain any excess fat.
2. Add the soups and milk to a double boiler, cook until thoroughly mixed and warm.
3. Combine the beef and soup mixture, spread out in a 9x13 pan.
4. Layer potatoes on top of the ground beef/soup mixture.
5. Mix together the onion, oregano, pepper and sugar.  Sprinkle this on top of the potato layer.
6. Add a layer of pepperoni.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (until potatoes are cooked through).
7. Remove foil then cover with Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses (to your liking).  Bake until cheese is bubbly.

Variations: We've tried this recipe with Italian sausage instead of ground beef.  We've also added mushrooms and peppers to the bottom layer, and substituted cheddar cheese for the Mozzarella.  Each variation received good reviews from my family, but we make it most often exactly as the recipe says.

Photos courtesy of recipekey.com and pizzavino.com

Enjoy casseroles? Try this recipe for Cheese Casserole Bread.