If You’re In The Baking Mood …

by digby

Last year I posted my recipe for Pumpkin Bread, (which I’ve renamed “Karen Tumulty Pumpkin Bread” since she wrote to me that she loved it.)

Today I will share my husband’s grandmother’s delicious old country German Christmas cookie recipe. I can see the four year old kid in his face every time I make them. (Real four year olds love them too.)

Grandma B’s Christmas Cookies:

1 cup good quality unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
3 cups flour
1 cup sour cream,
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tablespoons anise seeds

Cream butter and sugar until light. Add sour cream and blend well. Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Stir together flour, salt,baking soda, cream of tartar in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture. Add anise seeds. Mix well. Chill for two hours.

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness, dust lightly with flour. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. (If you don’t have cookie cutters you can just roll the dough into a cylinder and cut the dough into 1/4″ discs like you would cucumbers.)

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes. (Check frequently, time varies.)

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
pinch salt
1/2 capful of almond extract
2 tsp milk

Mix together in a small bowl. If you are making these with kids (or for kids), you can mix up different colors and decorate with sprinkles, dragees, sugars and nonpareils. (Let the frosting set up for a while before stacking the cookies.) If you’re making them for yourself, you can just drizzle the white frosting over the top of the cooled cookies and start eating.

Enjoy!

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