Sugar Cookies

The kids have really been into helping me cook lately.  It mostly has to do with getting to lick the spoons, but they actually have a recent genuine interest in the cooking part too. 
Last week I bought each of them their own apron and cookie cutters - Star Wars for Ben, and Easter bunnies and flowers for Lia.  The kids each were given jobs, Ben to measure the dry ingredients (which resulted in flour all over the floor) and Lia to work the mixer. 

Once the dough was ready I rolled it out and they each got to use their cookie cutters to make various shapes.  Lia's kit came with decorator rollers and stamps too, so even Darth Vader had some flowers added to him.  The kids did a great job and the cookies turned out wonderful. 

Here's the recipe I used:

Sugar Cookies

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup sugar

1 egg, room temp

1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, sift together flour and salt.  Set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on high speed until creamy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce the speed to medium, slowly add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute. 

Stop the mixer and add half the flour mixture.  Beat on low speed until most of the flour has been absorbed, about 1 minute.  Add the remaining flour and continue beating until all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into two equal balls.  Shape each into a disk and wrap separately in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least two hours or up to 2 days.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for 10 minutes.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.  Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 1 inch apart (you may want to line your baking sheet with parchment paper, but I didn't).  Reroll the scraps and cut out more cookies.  Bake the cookies until golden brown around the edges 7-10 minutes.  Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely.  Makes about 20 cookies.

(I only made a few cookies and then kept the remainder of the dough in the refrigerator.  Each morning before school I would roll out and bake two or three cookies for Ben's lunch.  Yum!)