Merry Maker Christmas Sugar Cookies

Amanda Beth's Note:

These are beautiful, and so much fun to make. Everyone is impressed by them, and they are not hard to make. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and friends do! The sugar cookie recipe is identical to Confectioner's Sugar Cookies #3094 by Linda Johansen, but there is no other way to post the recipe without copying it! Recipe and idea from Betty Crocker's Cookie Book. Thanks! (Cook time and prep time do not include chill time.)

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 48 cookies

• 1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter (I use half of each) or 1 cup margarine (I use half of each)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• food coloring (either liquid or paste)

Directions:

1. Mix sugar and butter.
2. Add eggs and flavorings; mix well.
3. Mix dry ingredients together, and blend in to other mixture.
4. Divide dough into several parts.
5. Tint each a different color.
6. Make as many different colors as you like, but make sure they are really different to get the strongest contrast.
7. Refrigerate dough for two or three hours.
8. Take each color of dough and roll into small balls.
9. Place an assortment of different colors next to each other, making sure no two of the same colors touch.
10. Roll together, until about 1/8-inch thick.
11. Cut as many cookies as possible from dough, because if you reroll it, it will smear together.
12. Or, you can make a few at a time by rolling only a few balls at a time.
13. Bake cookies at 375°F for 7-8 minutes, or until lightly golden on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
14. These cookies freeze well.

Reviews

[JustMeMelMel]

A little time consuming but fun to make! We loved these and they looked so pretty on our dessert table during the holidays!

[Karamia]

Unfortunately this didn't turn out as I thought it would. When I used cookie cutters on the dough and tried to lift it to the pan the different colors of dough didn't stick together and it fell apart. I gave up and just started using only one color at a time. These ones turned out well, but the taste of these weren't as good as other sugar cookies I've made. I used 1/2 margarine and 1/2 butter. I was sad I couldn't make pretty cookies as others did!!

[SaddleUp87]

One of the easiest sugar cookie doughs that I have ever worked with! I rolled my dough out into logs and also made spirals of red and green. Very impressive look when finished; even the smeared together ones that I re-rolled looked great! thanks!