Springerles

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsps anise extract

In a large bowl, beat eggs with sugar until fluffy-light and thick, about 5 minutes.

Stir in flour, soda, and anise extract, blending well to form a stiff dough.

Roll out, a half at a time, to about 1/4" (or less) thick. Cut with cookie cutter.

Bake on greased cookie sheet, 15 minutes in 300º oven. Immediately and carefully remove to racks to cool.

Notes: This is Grandma Boo's recipe, slightly amended. Hers were white, wonderful, and authentic, as she had a springerle rolling pin. Just as tasty, though, with dough colored according to one's whim and cut with cookie cutters of choice. These don't spread much on the sheet, tending to rise more than spreading. The thicker you roll your dough, the softer will be the cookies at the end of the baking time. A toothpick or blade can be used to mark unbaked cookies (veins on leaves, faces on people-shapes, feathers on turkeys), and markings will remain during baking.
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Sugar Cookies

2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 tsps baking powder
5½ cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla.

Mix all dry ingredients and add slowly to butter-cream mixture until incorporated. Roll to desired thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut cookies and place on cookie sheet at least 2" apart (cookies grow like crazy). Bake in 400º oven for 7 to 10 minutes. Should be light in color with light browning on the edges. Remove to cool; decorate with Sugar Cookie Icing.

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Sugar Cookie Icing

2 cups powdered sugar
4 tsps milk
4 tsps light corn syrup
½ tsp vanilla or almond extract
food coloring

Stir powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and vanilla or almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. Add more corn syrup to thin, if necessary. Divide and color.

Options: Apply with paintbrush or small spatula. Apply with icing bag and tip(s). Pipe outlines, allow to harden some, then thin icing to flood outlined areas. Your imagination rules.

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Gingerbread Cookie Place Cards

6 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
4 tsps ginger
4 tsps cinnamon
1½ tsps cloves
1 tsp pepper
1½ tsps salt
2 eggs
1 cup molasses

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Add flour mixture; combine on low speed. Divide dough in thirds; wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour.

On a floured work surface, roll dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut with a knife into equal rectangles, using a template to cut strips, then cross-cut. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until crisp but not darkened. Immediately upon removal from the oven, use a straw to poke holes in two top corners of each cookie. Let cookies cool on wire racks.

Use Sugar Cookie Icing to pipe the names of your guests and decorative borders on half of the cookies; decorate the remaining rectangles as desired (borders, acorns, asters, leaves, turkeys, etc.), as these will be the backs of the place cards and seen by guests on opposing sides of the table.

Assembly: Cut approximately 6" - 7" pieces of thin, satin ribbon in a number to match your number of guests. Place one name cookie and one decorated cookie back-to-back, thread a ribbon through the holes you made with the straw in the top corners, and tie in a knot. (After tying, trim ribbon to even lengths.) This enables the cookies to stand on the table as an easel.

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