Sugar Cookies (great for cut-outs) & Icing

Some sweet ladies from my church hosted a Back to School day last year. The younger siblings of school-aged kids made sugar cookies to give their brothers and sisters when they got home from their first day of school. I loved the recipe and have used it ever since!
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg. Mix until well blended.
2. Sift together salt, baking powder, and flour. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Add the vanilla.
3. Dough will form a ball when pressed together. Chill in the refrigerator until slightly firm.
4. Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. (I use powdered sugar to keep my surfaces dusted. It makes the dough less gummy than using flour.) Cut in your desired shapes and bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. (We prefer about 8 minutes so our cookies stay soft.)
Icing
1 c. powdered sugar
2 t. milk
2 t. light corn syrup
1/4 t. almond extract
paste food coloring

Mix sugar & milk until smooth. Beat in syrup & extract. This with additional milk until desired consistency. (Thin it little by little and only after mixing VERY well.)
I've also made icing using meringue powder and powdered sugar and water. The meringue powder icing dries extremely hard. The above recipe isn't quite as hard and uses items most people already have on hand.

Ginger Crinkles

I received this recipe from a woman who worked with my mom. It makes a double batch, which is about 7 1/2 dozen according to my last baking day!
Ingredients

1 1/3 c. vegetable oil (I use canola)
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
8 T. molasses (not black strap)
4 c. sifted flour
4 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
2 t. ginger
sugar for dipping

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix oil and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in molasses.3. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to molasses mixture.4. Form into balls and roll in sugar.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
I use a teaspoon scoop to make the balls. You just scoop and then plop them in sugar and flip over. I also bake them until just done. They stay moist and get gobbled up quickly!
Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

This recipe is so simple. I found the original idea on the Picky Palate website, but decided the extra marshmallow, chocolate, and mini M&Ms was too much fuss!

This makes such a yummy, easy cookie. Everyone loves them!

Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cookies

1 Cup creamy peanut butter

1 Cup sugar

1 egg

12 mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped (Sam's Choice works great...the WalMart brand)

36 mini marshmallows (Don't use)

1 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips (Don't use)

2-3 Tablespoons heavy cream (Don't use)

1/4 Cup mini M&M’s (Don't use)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place peanut butter, sugar and egg into a large bowl and mix until well combined. Scoop dough evenly into a 24 count mini muffin pan. Cook for 10-12 minutes until almost done. Remove from oven and press a peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie until flush with cookie top. (I don't do anything else except wait for them to cool and then pop them out to eat!)

If you want to top the cookies with the extra stuff:

2. Top each cookie with 3 mini marshmallows and return to oven for 2-3 more minutes or until marshmallows are puffed. Remove and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

3. Place chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted smooth. Stir in 2-3 Tablespoons heavy cream until silky and smooth. You can return back to microwave for 15 seconds to get a thinner consistency. Spoon chocolate over top of puffed marshmallows and sprinkle with mini M&M’s.