Eats: Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Hello! A friend of our daughter's did a big favor for her last week. Our daughter presented her friend with a handmade thank you card and some gifts as a token of her appreciation, but I wanted to thank the friend as well. I turned to my recipe clippings for inspiration.

I came across a recipe entitled "Sugar Cookies (Old Fashioned)", cut from a community cookbook. I've used a number of sugar cookie recipes in the past, but this one intrigued me for several reasons:

a. It only had to chill for 15 minutes.
b. The dough was supposed to be rolled out to 1/2" thick. That's rather thick for this type of dough, but it would mean that forming the cookies would be rather quick, and the baked cookies would be sturdy.
c. The recipe specified the use of a "large crinkly edged cutter". Obviously, any size/shape of cookie cutter could be used, but I happened to have the very cutter, which I'd purchased at an estate sale a few years ago:

It measures nearly 4" across, which I thought was large enough. 

Now on to the recipe:

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies (adapted from a community cookbook)

1/2 cup shortening (see note below)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 3/4 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream shortening and sugar together. Beat in eggs well; add vanilla and mix in. 

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, then add to creamed mixture until blended. 

Chill dough for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 while dough is chilling. 

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out to 1/2" thick on floured surface. Cut with large crinkly edged cutter. Put on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. 

Note: I used 1/2 cup (ie one stick) butter instead of shortening. 

The mixing/baking directions were vague; I actually elaborated a bit on some of the steps. 

This recipe yielded eight cookies made with the above cutter. I used a similar, but smaller-sized cutter (about 2 3/4" in diameter) to also make four smaller cookies that our daughter and I could enjoy. 

And here's how the cookies turned out:

They look pretty and tasted good too! It's a basic cookie recipe, but was quick and easy to make. I used green-colored sugar in honor of Michigan State, where our daughter and her friend met. 

Because of their thickness, the cookies did, indeed, travel well. Nice to know in case I want to make these for anyone else who lives out of town!