Belated Christmas Cookies

Every year the munchkin and I make and decorate sugar cookies for Santa. Only this year, the woman who runs our favorite Lebanese restaurant sent the hubby home with a bunch of homemade cookies. So I talked the munchkin into leaving those out for Santa and putting off our decorating until Boxing Day, when mommy would be less busy and cranky.

I've been on the hunt for a decent sugar cookie recipe for years. One that doesn't taste like paste, as most of them seem to do. I tried Alton Brown's last year, and despite his claims of awesomeness, was not impressed. This year, I gave Paula Deen's recipe a shot, and folks, I think we finally have a winner.



The down side is that these cookies can spread a bit in the oven (as evidenced by Fatty the Cookie Man on the top right up there). But not too badly, and I say it's fair trade-off for edible cookies--these babies are buttery and sweet and aided enormously by the hint of almond extract.

After the cookies were out of the oven I whipped up a batch of not-royal cookie icing in various colors, dug out some of the munchkin's old paintbrushes and a collection of colored sugars, and let her go to town. Too bad Santa missed out on these.