Secret Cookies
As soon as my kids were capable of wielding a juice glass, I instituted our own holiday cookie baking tradition. For all the same reasons as we did, they look forward to making Secret Cookies more than any of the others. And the leftovers are still the first to disappear from the cookie jar.
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound salted butter (1 1/2 cups, 3 sticks, or 340g), softened
- 1 3/4 cups (350g) granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups (450g) flour
- red, green or multi-colored sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the yolks and vanilla, mixing well. Add the flour and combine thoroughly.
- Use mounded teaspoonfuls and make balls of dough with your hands. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, then flatten the dough with the bottom of a patterned glass dipped in colored sugar (don't mix the colors!).
- Bake for about 10 minutes (watch carefully as they burn easily), until the cookies are lightly golden just around the edges. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for a minute or two and then gently transfer to baking racks to cool—they're fragile.
