Frosted soft sugar cookies

 Fred Meyer makes big soft sugar cookies that my family likes that I have always wanted to make at home.  I saw a recipe on my C&H sugar bag and thought I would try it.  They are good, they might not be exactly like Fred Meyer, but they taste like butter and sugar and they are soft and make me feel like Sponge Bob when he went to Grandma's house to eat cookies.

Soft Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups C&H granulated sugar

1 1/3 cups butter (this could be why they taste like butter)

2 eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (Megan will want to use almond, but you can do that to the icing instead)

3 1/2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl combine and butter or margarine and beat until creamy, about 5 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time blending well after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix in, scraping down sides of the bowl to make sure it is mixed in.  Then mix the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, and salt together and then add them to the butter mixture one cup at a time until incorporated.  Roll into one inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  After my first batch which came out shaped like  small haystacks, I flatened my balls of dough out until they were slightly less then 1/2 inch thick patties, this makes them come out flat like in the picture above.  Bake for 10-15 minutes and let cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Buttercream Frosting for cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened (I used just 1 1/2 cup to save some calories)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (this is rather a strange ingredient for frosting, but I did it.)

1 package (1 pound) powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 cups) (I added less because I always how left over frosting and I was using less butter also)

2 teaspoons almond extract or vanilla

1 teaspoon water (or enough to make it smooth and creamy)

1-2 drops food coloring unless you want it white.

In a large bowl beat butter until smooth, add cream of tartar.  Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, blending until fluffy.  Add extract and water and beat 5 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add food coloring if desired.  Kitchen aid mixers don't usually take so long to mix the frosting.

You can color plain granulated sugar to sprinkle on the cookies by taking 1/2 cup sugar and mixing it with a few drops of food coloring.  Which makes me feel really dumb that I bought red granulated sugar at Halloween to rim the drinking glasses with.  I should have just made it myself.  To rim a glass, dip the very top of the glass in water or punch and then dip the glass gently in a plate of sugar and let dry.  Experiment with this, if the sugar is too thick you feel like it is cutting your lip!