Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s turkey day, so why not decorate some sugar cookies? Turkey-style.

This is my favorite cut-out sugar cookie recipe.

I make these cookies for pretty much every holiday. From this dough, I cut out Easter eggs, Christmas trees, pumpkins, and today…

Turkeys.

Classic Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
Icing, to decorate (see recipe below)
Directions:
- Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. With the mixer running, add the egg, milk and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- Transfer dough on a surface and shape into two discs. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough to desired thickness (usually about 1/8 inch thick). Cut out into desired shapes.
- Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Do not brown the cookies or they will be overbaked.
- Cool on wire racks and decorate when completely cooled.
Sugar Cookie Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
½ cup shortening (crisco)
5 tablespoons milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)
Directions:
- In a mixer, cream sugar with shortening together.
- Slowly add in the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add the rest of the ingredients and whip until very smooth and stiffened.
- Separate the icing into bowls and color with desired food coloring. Place a scoop of icing in a Zip-lock bag and push the icing to one corner of the bag and snip off the end. Pipe the icing one the cookie.

gobble. gobble.

decorated cut-out sugar cookies