Thursday, March 11, 2010

--Give Me Some Sugar --

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner... I get it, I'm almost a week early but I live in Chicago where St. Patty's is a huge deal so it's hard to avoid getting the green bug. Even the Chicago river is dyed green for the celebration! I actually did a little bit of research to find out the exact origin of this tradition and it turns out that it dates back to 1962. It started off as a way to check for sewer discharges in the river and eventually the idea of dyeing the entire river for the celebration took off. It is a pretty amazing sight...and yes the dye disappears after a few hours.

With all this talk about St. Patrick's day, I decided to make some sugar cookies and then decorated them with green and white. There are sweet, just a little chewy and simply delicious.

Sugar Cookies


3 cups of flour

2 cups of sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups butter, softened (NOT melted)
3 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the softened butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla.
Combine the dry ingredients and mix on slow until the dough forms. Cool dough in the fridge for 20 minutes.
If you like sweeter cookies (or don't want to frost them), shape dough into 1 inch balls and then roll on sugar. Otherwise, use a small cookie scoop to place onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges begin to brown slightly. Remove from oven and let cool in a cooling rack. Frost and decorate however you prefer!
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