Sugar Cookies With Buttercream Frosting

Cook-a-holic's Note:

This sugar cookie recipe goes way back in my family, at least to my maternal great-grandmother. My mom always had a lot of cookie cutters, so we would make these for different occasions and decorate them with colored icing.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 20 cookies

Sugar Cookies

• ½ cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons milk

Buttercream Frosting

• 1⁄3; cup butter or 1⁄3; cup margarine , softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Cream together shortening, egg, vanilla and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture in three phases, alternating with the three tablespoons of milk.
3. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. At this point the dough can be kept overnight in the fridge or for several months in the freezer.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Flour a smooth surface, and roll the dough to 1/4 inch, working with about half the dough at a time. Put the remaining dough in the fridge to stay chilled. Cut out the cookies with cookie cutters of your choice.
5. Place cut-out cookies on a cookie sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes.
6. Allow cookies to cool before decorating with frosting.
7. Buttercream Frosting: Cream softened butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla and milk, adding milk by teaspoons and beating until frosting is smooth and of desired spreading consistency.