Dear Readers,

I have two gifts for you today!🥰

First, is my favorite Christmas cookie recipe. I've been making them since I was a kid, first with my grandma, then on my own, and now with my kiddos. My grandma's cookie cutters came all the way from Germany with her grandmother, but I've assembled my own cookie cutter collection over the years. The recipe is for "Old-fashioned Sugar Cookies" and is from an old Betty Crocker for kids cookbook. I've not been able to find it online, and I have no clue where the old cookbook is now. I do, however, have a photocopy of the page from the cookbook that is like a family heirloom to me. I thought I'd lost it a few weeks ago and was in full panic mode. 🤣

Through the years, I've modified it in a variety of ways, halving it, doubling it, making them for halloween and valentines and collecting pumpkin, heart, and ghost cookie cutters. Once I added some Reeses Pieces and did drop cookies instead of rolling and cutting out the dough. They were delicious. I almost always add an extra half cup of sugar to the recipe... So here you go, my favorite cut-out cookie recipe!

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup soft butter

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 tablespoons cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until particles are fine. Add egg, cream, and vanilla extract. Blend thoroughly. (If the dough is still really dry, I will add more cream a small amount at a time until it comes together a bit more.) If desired, chill dough for easier handling (I always do this!).

Roll out on floured surface, one-third at a time, to 1/8 inch thickness. Springle with sugar (I often do not do this); cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheets (my grandma always lined her cookie sheet with parchment paper). Bake at 400 for 5 to 8 minutes, until golden (in my experience, they'll be paler in the middle and golden around the edges).

If you need some icing for decorating, I just use powdered / confectioner's sugar, cream, a teaspoon or so of vanilla, and a tiny, tiny bit of corn syrup because that give it a nice little shine. I make it pretty thin so that it "floods" the space of the cookie. It hardens after a little bit, and you can stack the cookies on top of each other without making a mess! I don't have a recipe with actual measurements for this. It's all according to feeling and vibes.

If you make these I'd love to hear how it goes! If you're curious about how it differs from recipes I've found online... it's the cream! The recipes I've found don't include the cream. I do not know why.

Now onto the next gift!

BONUS EPILOGUES

Happily ever afters don't end when the book does! So I've got four--four!--new bonus epilogues for my readers.

Just click here to access new epilogues / short stories for:

Secrets Between Lovers (featuring the Bromley Brothers)

Leave a Widow Wanting More (a short holiday story)

Portraits, Passion, and Other Pastimes

Curves and Counterfeit (featuring a very merry holiday bromance)

More fun... the epilogues for Leave a Widow and Curves and Counterfeit double as short Christmas stories!

That one link will send you to a book funnel page will all of these epilogues, and anytime I add a new bonus epilogue to you, you'll have access to that through the above link as well.

It's my thank you for being with me on this journey!

Gimme Bonus Epilogues!

Happy reading!

Charlie

(these books available in all stores / not in KU)

Start the Series Now!

(these books will be in KU)

Read Curves and Counterfeit Now!

(these books are in KU)

Read the entire series now!