I’m sharing my mom’s recipe today. It’s that recipe that always reminds me of home and my childhood. Every year my mom would bake a big batch of rollout cookies and my brother and I would sit on the counter and frost cookies for hours. I carried on the tradition and made these with my boys when they were little and friends kids too. Here’s a little tip: the corn syrup in the icing recipe is what makes it thick enough to create beautiful designs and patterns on your cookies. I load it into a decorating bag and get creative.


- 3/4 C Sugar
- 1/2 C Melted Shortening
- 2 Eggs Beaten
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 C Flour
- 1 tsp Cream Tartar
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Combine Sugar, Shortening, Eggs, and Vanilla with a mixer. Add Remaining ingredients and mix until a dough ball forms. Chill for one hours. Roll out dough 1/8" thick, cut into shapes and bake on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 6-10 minutes depending on oven temp.
- I only bake these cookies for 6 minutes and let them cool on the cookies sheet. The heat coming off it will finish the baking time and give you a firm yet soft cookie.


- 6 cups powdered sugar
- ¼-½ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- gel food coloring (in desired colors)
- In the bowl of a stand mixer combine sugar and ¼ cup milk. Mix until smooth. Add milk as need to create a smooth mixture, one tablespoon at a time. Add corn syrup and almond extract.
- To decorate cookies, your outline icing should be the consistency of toothpaste, your flood icing should be the consistency of corn syrup.
- Add food coloring one drop at a time until desired color is reached. Pour into bottles, decorator bags or a cup.

Fun and messy decorating sugar cookies:). My mom made the frosting with confection sugar and water, adding food coloring back in the day. But boy, we just had a blast decorating them:).
Merry Christmas! Kathleen in Az
Kathleen my Mom used milk instead of water and we loved it too.
Merry Christmas Dawn… enjoy! I love your blog.
Melissa, Merry Christmas!