Sunday, October 30, 2011

Slightly Citrus Sugar Cut-Our Cookies

To me, it is always fun to bite into a 'sugar cookie' and find the slight tang or orange with a hint of cinnamon. It's kind of a flavorful surprise on the Christmas cookie plate. Except for chilling the dough, this is a pretty quick and easy recipe.

Slightly Citrus Sugar Cut-Out Cookies

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tablespoons half-and-half
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Mix together all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

3. Cut in butter and blend until mixture is crumbly.

4. With a fork, stir in lightly beaten egg, vanilla, orange, cinnamon, and half-and-half. Blend well with fork, then your hands to ensure thorough blending. Chill dough for one hour.

5. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

6. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle with sugar or leave plain for decorating with icing.

7. Bake for 6 - 7 minutes, or until lightly brown.

Ideas . . .
If you aren't going to do anything fancy in decorating the cookies, just line them all up, one deep, and drizzle them with icing. You can even up the creativity and go over them with two, different flavors.

Not interested in an orange flavor, just leave out the extract and cinnamon.

Remember, you can always cut out rounds of rolled dough and later sandwich them with jam or icing.

No Half and Half on hand? I've used evaporated canned milk with no problems.

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