Aunt Florence's Plain Cookies for Decorating

This is my great aunt Florence's recipe for sugar cookies.  The copy of the recipe that I have actually calls them Aunt Florence's Plain Cookies for Decorating.  I have always thought that was funny and so I like to call them that for fun.  These cookies are delicious and taste different than any other sugar cookies I've ever had.  I think it's the nutmeg.  I made a batch of dough up last night then rolled them out, cut them, baked and decorated them today.  This takes quite some time and is definitely not a quick little baking project.  However, they are really good and I hadn't made them in close to two years.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

2 C sugar

1 C crisco

3 T milk

5 C flour

1 T baking powder

1 tsp nutmeg

First mix together eggs, sugar and crisco until smooth.  Have you ever used the Crisco bars instead of the big tub?  I did it for the first time last night and it was soooo much cleaner.  I hate dipping into that big ol' tub of Crisco.  1 stick = 1 Cup which was perfect for this recipe.

Add milk and mix.

Add half of the flour, baking powder and nutmeg and mix well.

Slowly add the rest of the flour and mix together.  This dough is super thick and so is almost impossible to make without an electric mixer.  

Roll dough into a ball and chill.  I refrigerated it over night.

Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.

 These cookies are intended to be decorated (hence the name) and you can do so however you choose.

I mix confectioner's sugar, a little milk and a little vanilla or almond extract plus food coloring to the desired consistency and often add sprinkles.  I am not great in the decorating category so my cookies always get decorated with solid colors.  You can only see Christmas trees in the picture but I also did snowmen, snowflakes, candy canes and gingerbread houses.