If there is one thing that absolutely completes the holidays, it’s spending time in the kitchen baking sweets and treats galore!  Baking is a tradition that began for me as a little girl growing up.  Each Christmas Momma would pull out all the ingredients to make every variety of cookie imaginable for several days straight.  {Martha Stewart has nothing on this Momma of mine!} My sisters and I would help her decorate or fill each cookie, occasionally sneaking bite or two… or twelve, until we would be on a sugar high and Momma would be pitching a fit because we were eating all of her holiday gathering treats and gifts!

Now my girls do the same with me.  They ice, fill, and strategically arrange M & M’s or sprinkles on cookies to steal and eat share with family and friends.

As I join The Everyday Home Blog‘s virtual cookie Exchange, I wanted to share a cookie (that I swiped from an old Better Homes & Gardens magazine & tweaked just a little) that has been a favorite tradition in our home for nearly our entire marriage; buttery, sweet, simple, and colorful cream-filled cookies that our own Christmas celebrations would not be complete without!

Now, just a little disclaimer before I share this recipe. These buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, bite sized cookies are really, really unhealthy and extremely addictive.  As a matter of fact, when I made them for work last week I was told they were like crack.

So bake these fattening, addictive cookies at your own risk.

Ingredients:

1 cup cold butter, absolutely NO substitutes (I used Kerrygold butter for my recipe)

2 cups cake flour (I used King Arther brand)

3-4 tablespoons organic, heavy whipping cream

Sanding sugar

Powder sugar frosting (recipe to follow)

Putting it Together:

Preheat your oven to 375º.

In a medium mixing bowl, cut the butter into the flour until the pieces are the size of green peas.

I actually used the pastry attachment on my Kitchen Aid for this and it worked out great!

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the cream over the mixture and gently toss with a fork, pushing to the side of the bowl.  Repeat until all of the butter and flour mixture is combined into a dough that you can roll into a ball.

Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to an 1/8 of an inch.  Cut into rounds using a cookie cutter.

Using decorative & themed baking tools sure keeps the fun in Christmas baking! I LOVE this rolling-pin from Williams-Sonoma … sturdy for rolling as well as themed for keeping spirits bright!

Place the cut cookies on an ungreased, non-stick cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with the sanding sugar.  With a fork, poke four parallel rows in each cutout.

Bake 8-10 minutes, or just until the edges begin to brown.  Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Now for your Powdered Sugar Frosting: In a small bowl, mix together 2 cups sifted powder sugar, 2 Tablespoons softened butter (no substitutes), 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and enough heavy cream to make a spreadable frosting. If you are coloring the frosting with just one color, add a couple of drops, mixing well. If using more than one color, divide icing before coloring. I used “Wilton” gel coloring in sky blue for my blue frosting and “Candy-n-Cake” brand powdered food coloring in red to get a true red.

Spread a smidgen of the powdered sugar frosting on the non-sugared side of a cookie and then top with another cookie round.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

These are actually super easy to make; the most tedious part is carefully icing the cookies without grasping them to hard and crumbling them in your hand.

Serve your pretty little cream-filled bites of butter with hot cocoa or a cold glass of milk (skim milk not allowed).

These dainty bite-sizes delights are perfect for parties, potlucks, gifting, and being absolutely naughty on your diet.

You can’t eat just one.

And if you want to change these up just a little take Andes peppermint crunch, and top your cookies when they have about 1-minute left to cook.  Let cool and then ice with frosting that has 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract instead of the peppermint flavoring.

These cookies are very delicate, so pack with care if you are taking them to an event of gifting them.

They’ll be a hit no matter where you serve them!

Take a little time to check out all the other fabulous cookie recipes that are a part of the Virtual Cookie Exchange today!

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