Mama's Soft Sugar Cookies

I really, really wanted to make these for Christmas. My mother made them every Christmas when I was a little girl, and of course, having just lost her last October, I wanted to make them help remember her. Well, things got too busy as they usually do that time of year and I didn't get to make them. So... I thought Valentine's Day would be a great reason to pull out this delicious recipe once again. Let me tell you, I know that it is a no-no to eat the raw dough, but I can't tell you what this alone did in bringing back sweet memories!

Soft Sugar Cookies
Beat: 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar
Add: 3 beaten eggs
3-1/2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. lemon extract

Roll dough to about 1/4 inch, cut with cookie cutter. Bake at 350 degrees 7 to 9 minutes.

Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 to 2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk (evaporated)
Food color of your choice

Here we are ready for icing. If you want more of a frosting consistency, cut back on the evaporated milk to 1/4 cup. If you want more of an icing, you can use 1/2 cup. The latter is what I did and ended up dipping the cookies and putting them on the wax paper for my girls to decorate. Next time I will do a little less evaporated milk.

The girls LOVED this part! Decorate with your favorite sprinkles and candy conversation hearts.

Here are their finished masterpieces. Let me tell you these cookies are GOOD. They have kind of a soft bread texture to them. YUM!

I am linking to Tasty Tuesdays at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays at Blessed With Grace