The Finished Cow Cookie Project

Even though I'm quite through with cows and sugar cookies for a while, this undertaking was the most fun I've had in ages! I'm glad Ladies' Jubilee only comes once a year!

After searching for recipes and trying many different variations of dough and decorations, I settled on my grandmother's Christmas cookie recipe. Isn't it amazing how, with all of the new and exciting things out there, sometimes the old ways are the best?

This is a super-easy recipe and takes about an hour from start to finish. Use a good amount of flour for kneading and rolling - it's a very sticky dough otherwise.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with nonstick spray.

2. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. If you have a stand mixer...use it! The dough will be very heavy and very sticky.

3. Add in the shortening with a fork or the paddle blade of your mixer. Add in the eggs and vanilla, mixing well.

4. Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thick on a well-floured work surface. Cut into desired shapes with a floured cookie cutter.

5. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 9 minutes. Watch carefully toward the end of the time so the edges don't get overly browned. Remove and cool completely before decorating.


If you'd like to make sugar spots like the purple ones on my cows, just sprinkle on the sugar right before they go into the oven. The dough is pretty thick, so you may need to gently press the sugar in with your finger to keep it from rolling off.

The eyes are just a chocolate sprinkle pressed into place before baking. They aren't in the oven long enough for it to melt and get gooey, so you can experiment with different colors and shapes.

These are also fantastic cookies to bathe in powdered sugar frosting. I did a few this way last Monday with my leftovers. It's a great combination if you're not making 400 cookies at a time. I was immediately whisked back to my childhood, helping my grandmother make Christmas cookies. What a lovely way to end Jubilee for this year!

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