Houses of Hope Cookies
 
 
Ingredients
  • 4 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 3 cups of sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1½ teaspoon salt
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • royal icing
Instructions
  1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and salt; mix on medium high speed until combined. With the mixer on low speed so the flour doesn't fly all over the place, add the flour in two (I do 3) batches until just incorporated.
  2. Divide the dough in half, past into a round and cover in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour or 2, or up to 2 weeks (but I bet it can last longer. I tend to push the limit on that short of thing….)
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to about ¼ of an inch thickness (but this is really up to you. The thickness of your cookies will obviously determine how chewy your cookie will be, how long it will take to bake and how many cookies you will be able to produce). With a cookie cutter (or sharp knife) cut out your shapes and carefully place them on your silpat or cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. The good thing about these cookies is that if they don’t look perfect when you pick them up with your spatula, you can always fix them on the parchment or silpat. They bake almost exactly the way they look when you pop them in the oven.
  4. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for at least 15 minutes before baking. When the cookies have become hard, bake in the oven for about 8 or 9 minutes – NUT NO MORE! I know they will seem undercooked, but give them 15 minutes and they might as well be rocks (but not, because you didn’t over bake them!)
  5. Let the cookies cool completely before decorating. (decorating usually takes several hours or days depending on how you manage your time – just don’t expect them to get them all finished in one sitting, because that’s basically impossible!)
Recipe by A Sue Chef at http://www.asuechef.com/houses-of-hope-cookies/