4TH OF JULY SUGAR COOKIES RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and baking soda; gradually beat into creamed mixture., Shape into 1-in. balls. Roll in additional sugar. Place on greased baking sheets; flatten with a glass. Bake until set, 10-12 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Steps:

• Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
• Add sugar and salt and beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• Add egg; beat until well blended, about 1 minute.
• Reduce speed to low and beat in vanilla.
• Add flour and beat on low speed just to blend.
• Gather dough into ball; divide in half.
• Form each half into a ball and flatten into a disk.
• Wrap disks separately in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 4 hours.
• Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep Chilled.
• Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350'F.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 1/8" thickness for smaller (2-inch) cookies and 1/4" thickness for larger (3- to 4-inch) cookies.
• Using decorative cookie cutters, cut out cookies and transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.
• If cookies become too soft to transfer to baking sheets, place in the freezer on waxed paper for 5 minutes before continuing.
• Gather scraps, roll out the dough, and cut more cookies, repeating until all dough is used.
• If not icing cookies, decorate with sprinkles or other toppings as desired.
• Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are firm on top and golden around edges, about 10-12 minutes for smaller cookies and up to 14 minutes for larger cookies.
• Cool completely on the rack.
• Decorate with Royal Icing, then sprinkles or other toppings as desired.
• Let stand until icing sets.
• Can be made 4 days ahead.
• Place powdered sugar in your mixer (I like my whisk attachment, but use what you like)
• Mix lemon juice into warm water.
• Add water/lemon juice mixture to powdered sugar and blend
• It should be the consistency of syrup.
• Divide into containers and color as desired