just clunking along

Well, the water seems normal - rather than too warm - at the Y, so I'm wondering what's in store when the school's back in session - brrrrrr.

Other than lovely swims, pretty scarves and the usual collection of activities, I whipped up a batch of Christmas cookies. Sugar cookies is what the recipe claimed they are, but I think they could be called butter cookies or maybe just less-leavened, cream-free scones. Delish for sure!

three and a half cups flour, one teaspoon baking powder and a quarter teaspoon salt, mixed.

two sticks (a cup) unsalted butter, a cup and a half white sugar, two eggs and a teaspoon and a half vanilla extract, creamed.

the dry added to the damp and worked until the dough is smooth (takes a little bit, but not too long or it'll be tough). The dough's scent reminded me of Christmases past.

The recipes says divide the dough and refrigerate, then roll out and cut. I say phooey and rolled and cut the cookies, then refrigerated for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets before baking at 375 for about 12 minutes, just until the cookies' edges brown.

Cool 'em off for a while on the sheet so they don't break when you try to remove them, then cool and decorate. I opted for homemade mint icing (two cups powdered sugar and three tablespoons of hot whipping cream whisked until homogenized, then heated in a bowl over hot water for 10 minutes to eliminate the corn starch flavor - I used half for mint icing, with a capful of extract and half was used for almond), and decorated with blue and pink sparkly sprinkles.

Tasty!

seal the cookies up in an airtight container - waxed paper may be used to separate layers of cookies.

the recipe above made 20 good-size (three and a half inch rounds) cookies, but could have been stretched to two dozen or maybe thirty smaller cookies. Which is what I'd do next time.