One of my fondest childhood food memories is of the big rectangular tin of cutout cookies my Aunt Eleanor used to make for the four of us each Christmas and Easter. She had collected an impressive array of cutout shapes which, when I had to downsize, went to another family member. I love her recipe – which includes a box of lemon or orange gelatin as one of the cups of sugar.

I wanted to keep this memory going with our granddaughter who has an egg allergy, so my Aunt’s recipe needed to be replaced. Fortunately, many cooks and bakers are replacing or eliminating eggs these days, so the choices were plentiful; however, this was the recipe that I used for this year’s holiday bake and it is delightful – the website, Safely Delish, has quite a nice collection of allergy-friendly recipes.

There is nothing more fun than decorating cookies with a toddler! When I say sugar goes everywhere, believe me – sugar in shoes, on fingers and in every possible nook and cranny. Any cleanup is definitely worth the fun and laughs. Looking forward to our next session and more cookie decorating!

Egg Free Cut Out Cookies from Safely Delish

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened slightly
• 2 TBSP milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together butter, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Cover and chill dough in refrigerator for about 30 minutes (I put the dough aside overnight – you can do this, but you may need to allow the dough to come up in temperature a bit in order to roll it out).
5. On parchment paper (used a silicon mat) roll dough out to 1/4-1/3 inch thickness. If the dough warms up too much during the process, refrigerate rolled dough an additional 10-20 minutes before cutting shapes).
6. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Press one side in sugar or sprinkles if desired (I did not do this as we wanted to save for decorating day) Re-roll any remaining dough for additional cutouts.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes depending on cookie shape, size, and thickness. Allow to cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to wire cooking rack. Cool completely before frosting.