Fantastic Sugar Cookies

The original recipe came from the Cotton Country Collection cookbook (still available from Amazon).

• Ready In: 3 hrs 8 mins
• Serves: 8
• Yields: 30 cookies

Ingredients

• Cream together in a mixer

• 1  cup butter (do NOT substitute margarine or shortening)
• 2  cups sugar

• Then add (mixing well after each)

• 2  eggs
• 2  teaspoons vanilla
• 2  teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 4  cups  sifted flour

Directions

1. Roll the dough out to 1/8-1/4 thick (depending on how thin you like your final cookies) between sheets of waxed paper.
2. Then put the rolled out dough-sheets in the refrigerator or freezer, laying them flat. Let them chill for several hours, until hardened.
3. Take the sheets out to work with one at a time, leaving the others in your fridge to stay cold.
4. Carefully pull one side of the waxed paper up off of the dough, freeing it up, then let the waxed paper lay lightly back down so you can flip the dough-sheet over.
5. Repeat the process of freeing the other side of the waxed paper off of the dough, trying not to mess up your flattened shape.
6. (NOTE: If you take too long to do this, the whole thing has to go back in the refrigerator or freezer to re-harden.)
7. The purpose of doing this maneuver is to make it easy to pull the dough off the waxed paper without distorting your shape when you cut it with your cookie cutter. So, with the dough both cold and not stuck to the waxed paper, you can quickly cut out your cookies and pop them onto a cookie sheet for baking.
8. If you have problems with the dough still trying to stick to your waxed paper, or you need to roll out the dough again with the leftover pieces of dough from cutting out your cookies, try dusting the waxed paper lightly with a 50-50 mix of granulated sugar and flour before putting the dough on it. And remember to put your freshly rolled out leftover dough back in the refrigerator to re-harden.
9. Once the cookies are cut out and on your greased cookie sheet, you can decorate them generously with colored sugar. It's easy to make your own colored sugar by simply adding powdered or liquid food coloring to granulated sugar and shaking it up. However, if you use liquid coloring, you'll need to make it at least a day in advance to give it some time to dry (which is just one reason why I only buy powdered food coloring).
10. Bake the cookies at 375 degrees until lightly browned.
11. Remove immediately from your cookie sheet when done and let cool on a rack. These are great to eat hot or cold, and they freeze well. These cookies also age well, and can be stored in a tin for a month outside the freezer.