Butter Cookies

I think you all know what my favorite ingredient is, right? It’s butter, of course! It improves the taste of just about everything. Brownies? You need butter. Steak? Plop some butter on that bad boy. Bread? Spread the butter on there nice and thick! Butter is good, man.

These butter cookies are perfect. The recipe uses an entire pound of butter so the flavor just shines right through. They are like a little taste of my butter filled dreams.

This is my mama’s recipe and we all know that recipes from your mama are going to be good, right?

These mix up quick, chill in the fridge for a half hour and then are ready to be rolled and cut into whatever shapes you like. We went with Christmas shapes this time, but don’t consider these to be just Christmas cookies. My mama makes these for her co-workers’ birthdays and people just beg her for the recipe. They are darn good.

My kids really prefer a simple, understated look when it comes to decorating these cookies.

Really, though, you could use royal icing for these and make some pretty spectacular looking cookies if you know how to decorate. Me? I leave that to the kids. I just mix up some powdered sugar, milk, and a little food coloring and beg my kids to keep the icing on the cookies and not decorate the walls. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they bury the gingerbread man in sprinkles. The life of a cookie is rough.

Butter Cookies

• 1 pound butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and vanilla and mix well. Beat in the flour and salt. Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll out dough between 1/4 and 1/2 inch and cut into shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 10 minutes or until very lightly browned on the bottom. Keep a close eye on these, because they are not nearly as tasty when they get too brown.