Tastes Like Food

Only a few months ago did I realize the joys of parchment paper. I grew up making sugar cookies at Christmastime in the shape of Christmas trees, bells, boots and santas, but my mom never used parchment paper, just rolled the cookie dough right on the table with flour. Now, as a non-dairy eating grown-up when I make cookies without butter, they don’t work quite the same, and parchment paper saves the day.

This recipe is identical to the recipe in the Joy of Cooking 1997 edition, except I use dairy-free Earth Balance instead of butter and put the dough to chill in the freezer instead of the fridge.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb (2 sticks) Earth Balance, original recipe calls for butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Cream room temperature Earth Balance and sugar until light in color and fluffy. (Earth Balance will act very similar to butter.)
2. Add egg, baking powder, salt and vanilla and blend until well combined.
3. Stir in flour until smooth.
4. Divide the dough in half, placing each half between a set of 2 sheets of parchment paper. Roll the dough to 1/4″ thick.
5. Place each parchment paper and dough sandwich on a cookie sheet and put in freezer for about 15-20 minutes. (The dough will be firm but not rock hard.)
6. Working with one set of dough at a time, remove and discard both sheets of parchment paper. Place the dough (it will be stiff, but handle it gently) on a fresh sheet of parchment paper.
7. Use cookie cutters to cut your favorite shapes.
8. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 9 minutes at 350° (in Denver, Colorado altitude).
9. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes before removing them to cool on racks.
10. Frost and decorate as you like!

Notes:
* Interestingly, for the non-dairy eaters out there, several brand name companies including Duncan Hines and Pillsbury make many of their frosting tubs totally dairy free. I doubt that’s intentional, but it works well for me.
* I had another cookie making first today — I used a tiny circle cookie cutter as well as a regular sized one. The tiny cookies are about the size of a half dollar. Such a great idea! The little cookie cutter fits into many spaces left in the rolled dough.