Welcome back to Southern Comfort Food, my weekly post with a recipe that will taste like home and warm your soul.

Now we’re into the Christmas holiday season, I’ll be posting Christmas recipes, my mouth watering all the way!

I’ll begin my Christmas treats with one I grew up with, my cousin Ginger’s Christmas cookies. These are a great sugar cookie recipe where the cookie itself is not too sweet, giving you the chance to decorate with all the sugary goodness you can stand. 🙂

My cousin Ginger (on my mother’s side) always had a Christmas party at her house each year. She’d provide a lot of wonderful food–how she did it with a full-time job I don’t know, but it was a splendid gathering year after year.

I remember most these Christmas cookies, and making them with my mother every Christmas. We had one particular set of copper cookie cutters (which have been put away somewhere now) that we always used: a Santa, a Christmas Tree, a bell, and a reindeer.

Tonight, just for this blog, I made a batch. I hadn’t made them in at least 10 years, but they came out tasting just exactly as I remember them. *Sigh*

Unbaked and heading for the oven.

The strange shaped ones on the right are my daughter’s. It’s a Porcupanda–a gift from her Gishwiz package (it’s a Supernatural thing–need I say more?). The rest are my current Christmas cookie cutters.

Baked and Delicious

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Cookie

The finished product.

Ginger’s Christmas Cookies

1 3/4  cups flour (for a Gluten-Free version substitute Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1                                           Baking Mix)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (Rumford)

2/3 cup butter, softened but not liquified

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg well-beaten

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour and baking powder together in large bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl cream butter and sugar together. Mix beaten egg into the butter mixture and add vanilla. Into this stir the dry ingredients in stages (a big tablespoon at a time works well). Mix well until soft dough forms.

Divide dough into three portions. Roll out 1/2 inch thick on a floured board. Cut into shapes and decorate if desired. (If you intend to ice them, bake them plain.)

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 400 for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown.

I do hope you’re able to enjoy these wonderful cookies over the holiday.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Come back next week for another recipe full of down-home southern comfort. 🙂