Mom’s Sugar Cookies

Mom used this recipe for her Halloween pumpkin cookies, which she made for over 50 years and gave out on Halloween to generations of local children, then parents and children, then grandparents, parents, and children.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. It's easiest to make these cookies in a stand mixer.

Ingredients

• 1 7/8 c. Flour
• 1 scant tsp salt
• 2 scant tsp baking powder
• 4 oz butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla or other flavoring
• Milk, if dough is too stiff

Cream the sugar and the butter until well-mixed. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Add vanilla, salt, and baking powder and mix. Add flower slowly, incorporating it well. If the dough is too stiff or dry, add milk by the tablespoon until the consistency feels right, firm and not gooey. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and refrigerate it for 30 min. or more.

Roll out the dough so it’s about 1/8 in. thick, and use your favorite cookie cutter. Bake 20 min or until done. They should be pale in the center with golden edges.

You can make two batches of the dough at one time. Let the cookies cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

• 4 oz butter
• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Food coloring
• Milk, to get consistency right

Decorations

• Candy orange slices, cut to resemble smiles
• Candy corn, for noses
• M&Ms, for eyes

You can make 2 batches of the frosting at a time, but don’t make any more than that. The texture will suffer.

Decorating these cookies had become an annual event for family members and friends. We gathered around the family kitchen table with knives and bowls of frosting, and the cookies.

Leave the frosted cookies for at least four hours to dry before putting them in plastic sandwich bags. These cookies freeze well either before or after frosting.