Wow! Thank you! I am going to have to premake some of these and have my family try them out to decide which one I'm going to use.

Ok, I'm no cook, and my friends would laugh out loud to know I'M posting a recipe, but this one just has to be shared. These sugar cookies taste just like the ones in the Cookies on a Stick basket, moist and thick. The best part is that you don't have to chill the dough.

The number of cookies you'll get varies depending on the size you cut. They don't grow much so you can use a detailed cutter if you want.

1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream butter & sugar
Beat in egg and vanilla
Add baking powder and flour
Do not chill dough.
Roll and cut (1/4+" thick)
Place on greased cookie sheet
Bake until just starting to brown on bottom - watch...it could be 5 to 10 minutes or maybe more.

Any recipe for rolled sugar cookies should work, but here's mine. I also freeze this dough and use it weeks (maybe months) later.

Christmas Joy Cookies

The following recipe makes a large batch of dough and yields about 5 dozen medium size rolled sugar cookies. It can also be cut in half for smaller batches.

Ingredients
¾ Cup Butter or Margarine (softened)
2/3 Cup Shortening
1½ Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Tbl Milk (plus extra, if needed)
2 Tsp Vanilla Dry Ingredients
4 Cups Flour
3 Tsp Baking Powder
½ Tsp Salt

**Needed Later**
Whipping Cream
Frosting

Mixing
Blend dry ingredients and set aside.

Using a mixer and a large bowl, beat butter/margarine and shortening together. Add sugar and beat until mixture is fluffy. Beat in sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla until well mixed.

Add in dry ingredients gradually and mix well. (Use electric mixer only if it is a heavy duty one. If mixer has dough hooks, switch to those. Can also mix manually.) If dough seems too dry, sparingly add more milk.

Once dough is thoroughly mixed, empty out of bowl onto wax paper. Form into either 1 or 2 loaves and store in gallon size storage bags. Chill in refrigerator for at least 3 hours. (Dough can be made several days ahead of time, and may also be frozen.)

Cutting & Baking 375 degrees
Remove dough from refrigerator and allow time to warm slightly (but not to room temperature.)

Roll dough on floured surface until 1/4 inch thick (or thinner if you like crispy cookies). Cut shapes with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheets treated with a non-stick spray.

Use pastry brush to coat top of cookies with thin layer of whipping cream. (Optional step, unless you are adding decorator sugars before baking).

Bake at 375 for approximately 10 minutes. (Note – cooking time varies greatly depending on pan type and oven.)

Remove from oven and place cookies on wire baking racks to cool.

Decorate as desired.

Frosting
Frosting can be made from a myriad of different recipes. A common favorite is simply powdered sugar, softened margarine, milk, and vanilla. Proportions vary greatly depending on how thin, thick, creamy, you want it to be. It’s almost impossible to go wrong unless you pour in tons of milk. I don’t measure, but one starting guess would be: 2 lbs powdered sugar, 1/2 stick margarine, 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla.

Note, vanilla is optional and tends to make the icing a shade darker. Omit if you want stark white or use special clear vanilla.

JHB, Wonderfull idea! Please share your receipe. Mine always turn out rock hard. :eek: Just not supposed to be a baker I guess.

Are they looking just for party food - or also activities?

One of the things I sometimes used to volunteer was cookies to let the kids decorate. I'd make heart-shaped sugar cookies and bake enough so each child could decorate 4-6. Lots of white frosting and decorations and the kids have a blast.

Having done this many, many years for different types parties (mostly Christmas or Valentines)- here are some additional hints. </font>

• Disposable everything! Small bowls to hold the icing, tiny paper cups to hold decorator pieces, plastic tablecloths, plastic knives. Sheets of copy paper pulled straight from a fresh ream make great placemats upon which to work.</font>
• Bring a huge bowl of only white icing. Either stick with that or add color in the individual bowls at each table.</font>
• If there's not a sink in the room or bathroom really close, I bring a big (clean) bucket and fill it with soapy water so they can easily wash their hands. (Bring a couple hand towls).</font>
• Usually they divide up into table groups. If everyone is doing cookies at the same time, you'll need to split your supplies up for each group. Some parties have the kids rotating through stations or activities.</font>
• Get styrofoam plates and have each child's name written on the rim (on top). As they decorate the cookies, they can put them on their plate to dry. Keeps them from getting mixed up.</font>
• If the icing dries hard (and you have time for it to dry), provide baggies to take the cookies home in. If it's softer icing or not dry, bring gallon size ziplock bags where they can just slide the whole plate inside, zip it shut and transport it that way. (Test it at home to make sure the plate fits.)</font>

Have fun!!

P.S. Some of the dollar stores now carry plastic bottles of the sugar sprinkles. That makes it pretty cheap to really stock up.

[ 01-27-2006, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: JHB ]

By the way, the jello recipe is

one box jello
1 1/2 c. boiling water
stir to dissolve
gently whisk in 2 c. Cool Whip
pour into dishes and chill until set.

It separates into layers as it chills.