Cookie Cutter Sugar Cookies--Make Turkey Shapes for Thanksgiving! (recipe, pareve)

COOKIE CUTTER SUGAR COOKIES P YIELD: 3 ½ DOZEN

Every Thanksgiving I pull out this recipe to make Turkey cookies. Young children (and some adults) often don’t like the fruit pies traditionally served at this time. These cookies are a nice, plain not too sweet treat. Naturally, you can use this dough to make any shape you want. You can frost them with multi-colored icing or just sprinkle them with decorating sugar or sprinkles as I do.

INGREDIENTS                       

2 sticks non-dairy margarine-softened            

1 cup golden brown sugar-tightly packed       

1 teaspoon vanilla extract              

1 egg                          

2 2/3 cups flour plus extra flour for kneading      

1 teaspoon baking powder              

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

optional: colored decorating sugar, sprinkles

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat margarine and sugar in electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and beat until well blended. Pour in dry ingredients. Beat until completely mixed. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl while beating.
2. Sprinkle any flat surface with flour. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for two minutes. Keep adding flour to the surface and to your hands so that the dough doesn’t stick. It will be very soft. Shape dough into a thick rectangle, wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate several hours. This dough will never get really stiff so you won’t have to soften it before rolling.
3. Preheat oven to 350 F.
4. Cover cookie sheets with baking parchment.
5. Sprinkle flour on flat surface. Remove dough from refrigerator. Cut off 1/3 of the dough. Roll it in flour and then roll it quickly into a 1/8 inch rectangle. Cut out cookies with cookie cutter. Remove excess dough from around cookies and transfer them with a large spatula onto cookie sheet.* These cookies don’t spread so that you can leave only ½ inch between them.
6. Reroll dough and repeat process until cookie sheets are full. Bake in middle level of oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies are slightly browned around the edges. Allow to cool for five minutes before removing cookies to cooling rack.

*NOTE: Sprinkle decorating sugar or sprinkles on cookies at this point before baking them. Bake the cookies first if you plan to decorate them with icing.