Halloween Sugar Cookies

This sudden onset of rain that appeared yesterday may discourage many trick-or-treaters, but that just means more candy for me. I'm never much of a candy person, during the other 365 days of the year I'm quite immune to popular allure of candy bars, they're just not my indulgence of choice. Well, they're not much of an indulgence at all. Typically I figure that if I'm going to put something of questionable nutritional value it might as well be decadent. However, there's something about Halloween that removes the "stigma" I normally attach to mass produced chocolates. In fact, I'll admit that I just opened up the bag of Halloween candy I purchased at Costco today and grabbed an Almond Joy on my way to my laptop to write this post.

Halloween this year has also given me a new appreciation for sugar cookies, which I normally ignore due traumatic experiences with cheap grocery store cookies and frosting. My mother asked me last week to make a batch of sugar cookies and use up the left over sprinkles from my little sister's school project. The cookies are supposed to be for my little cousins when they stop by tonight for trick-or-treating, but my mom's boyfriend has already eaten about two of them. And my mother and I, admittedly, ate up a cookie as well, quickly passing it back and forth bite after bite, in awe of how simply delicious it was, until it was gone.

Sugar Cookies

(makes roughly 60 cookies, I made only 1/4 of this recipe)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Sugar Cookie Frosting

4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup butter
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and butter until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.