Cookies for my grandmother...and a sugar cookie recipe!

I woke up missing my grandmother today.

Not sure why, I just am.

So I decided to repost this.  

It was originally written for frosting for the cause last fall.

If your grandmothers are around, give them a great big squishy hug from me.

Thanks.

Irene Janette Joan Dulcinia Dale Crystal Bridget.

Not many people are quite so fabulous that they need so many names.

My grandmother was one of those people.

She was magical.

Paula Deen with a crystal ball.

Martha Stewart with a wicked sense of humor.

Lucille Ball, without the cigarette, convinced she’d be discovered 

and whisked off to Hollywood at any moment 

(and yes, she had her head shots ready and waiting).

She taught me more things than I can count...

Diamonds go with everything, 

every outfit needs jewelry, 

and pedicures should always be red. 

Most importantly, 

she taught me how to make even the smallest moments special.


Sandwiches are good.

Sandwiches eaten outside while looking at a pretty view - better.

Ice Cream is delicious.  

Ice Cream in a tall, footed, pink soda fountain glass, 

eaten with a long, silver ice tea spoon - that’s dessert.

Cake and cookies are great. 

Cake and cookies on a tall pedestaled cake plate, 

served on antique china - now you’ve got a party.

No occasion was so small that it didn’t deserve a little fanfare.

She had a hard life, like most ladies of her generation.  

Her antique china may have been mismatched, 
but she knew that didn’t take away from its beauty.

While I was in college, we found that my grandmother’s headaches were brain cancer.

A few months after her diagnosis, she came to California 

and got to stand at the gates of Paramount Motion Picture Studios...

She’d finally made it to Hollywood.

We lost who she was before she lost her life.

Brain cancer and its treatments did its damage to her personality.

But...she never lost the twinkle in her eye.

Perfume and jewelry ‘til the end.

I miss her every single day.

....still can’t find her crystal ball.

In honor of my grandmother and her love for all things pretty, 

I’d love to share our family’s sugar cookie recipe with you!  

These are the traditional ‘rolled and cut-out’ cookies that we have made for decades

 and decorated for Christmas.  

This is the recipe that ‘started it all’.  

Now there’s a blog and cookies going out the front door almost everyday!  

My grandmother would have been thrilled with the whole production.

Sugar Cookies

preheat 375 

2 3/4 cups flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup room temp butter

1 cup white sugar

2 room temp eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl (or sift if you’d like) and set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar on med speed until well mixed.  


Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.  


Stir in flour on low until dough comes together.  


Turn out onto a piece of saran wrap and form into a small round disk.  


Wrap tightly and refrigerate.  Let rest and chill for at least an hour, overnight is better.

Roll out on floured cutting board.  

Now you have some options. 

If you’d like crunchier cookies that are yummy without any icing, roll to approx. 1/8 inch thickness and bake 7-8 minutes.

For cookies that will stand up to a layer of royal icing (like the ones coming up in the decorating tutorial) roll to 1/4 inch and bake 8-11 minutes depending on the size of your cookie.  


Take them out before the edges brown. (this is really up to you, I like the edges a little over done and crisp.  It’s just a cookie for gosh sakes...do what you like!)

Cool on wire racks.  


Once cool, cover with a tea towel to hide them from children who will eat them before you get to decorate them!!!!

Rosie Ribbon Cookies

I have some fabulous girlfriends that participated in the 
Susan G. Korman 60 mile walk last November.  

These Rosie Ribbon Cookies were made as party favors for a fund-raiser.

Here’s how I did it!

Start with some square blanks, flooded with white royal icing.

....and A LOT of royal icing ribbon roses (I made these the day before)


For Royal Icing Ribbon Rose Tutorial go see
Sugarbelle and Ali Bee!

I made two different colors of pink for a little variety.

Here are the icing bags all ready to go!

I used the smallest leaf tip on the green and #1 writing tip on the yellow and  dark pink.  


The light pink was only used to make the ribbon roses...101 petal tip.

I practiced, a lot. 

 I had exactly the right amount of cookies, not a single extra, 

so I was a bit more careful than usual.  

I spaced out the roses into a ribbon shape, alternating the colors a bit.

I used green icing to glue down the roses,

then filled in the spaces between the roses with tiny leaves.

I certainly could have stopped there.  I couldn’t help myself though...

So with the dark pink and yellow...

I added little dots to fill in the ribbon shape.

and some little yellow centers to a few of the roses on each cookie.

And that’s it!!

I loved baking for you all!  

Hope you try to make these soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lizy B






‘My entry into Fingerprints on the Fridge’s Feature Yourself Friday, sponsored by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines’ (add a link to your party too!)