Aunt Leona’s Vanilla-Sugar Cookies, the roll out kind

The Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon rind, minced or juice

The Recipe:

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon until light and fluffy. Add eggs.
Add in dry ingredients. Flatten into a disk and wrap in parchment or plastic wrap for longer storage. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or freeze for later use.
Thaw before rolling. Prepare your rolling space by sprinkling a bit of flour on counter. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness and cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
Line pans with parchment and space cookies 1 inch apart. Bake in a 350° F oven for 10-12 minutes or until just golden around the edges.

Allow to cool before using your favorite royal or buttercream icing recipe. Best enjoyed day of or day after. Dough keeps in freezer up to 3 weeks.

The Blog:

There is a joy in making roll-out cookies, a self-satisfactory delight in the preparation and in the eating and sharing. These are named after my father’s Aunt Leona who lived in upstate New York in an old house by the train tracks. Like so many women who were raised during the depression, she was accomplished in the kitchen as a baker, cook and preserver. She had old fashioned hard crack candies in antique bowls on the coffee table and near the front door and bottles of homemade raspberry wine in her pantry. She made our family hand sewn, themed
ornaments each year for Christmas and always sent us McDonald’s gift certificates for our Christmas Eve treat.

We serve these cookies every year at our Christmas party. We roll and bake them the afternoon before the party (put them in an airtight container overnight) and ice and decorate the morning of. After we ice them, I line my baking pans with fresh parchment and serve them right from the pans, walking around the room, passing them around to our family and friends. I believe these are best enjoyed the day they are baked or the day after, however, if they are iced, they can even be good on the third day. The dough can be made ahead and frozen, up to 3 weeks ahead. Thaw before attempting to roll the dough. You can also freeze the baked cookies, well
wrapped and sealed, for up to 2 weeks.