Sugar? Nope, butter cookies

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. My boys love to bake, and while they like cakes and muffins and all that, there's nothing better than making cookies. You know, the kind of cookie that you actually cut out and decorate. Like we do for Christmas. Except we do these for just about any occasion, like dog parties or Halloween or, well, Easter. Partly that's because I collect cookie cutters. They're small, come in all shapes and it's something cheap and small to collect.

Anyhow. I usually make the dough a day or so ahead. Ok, maybe a few days if I just can't muster up the strength to face two boys with lots of cookies and a big pot of flour on my counter. Sometimes I chicken out and bake with little brother alone while big brother is at swimming lessons with daddy or at his grandma's. We take the dough out of the fridge and start kneading a bit until it's just about soft enough to roll out. But never let it get too warm or it'll just stick to everything and become one gooey mess instead of a buttery cookie.

Then pick your favorite cookie cutter(s). Bunnies were an obvious choice.

Start cutting out. Occasionally dip your cutter in flour. Little brother will tell you how important that is. Not that that has anything to do with the fact that he loves dumping flour all over the counter.

Check if it comes out alright. If it doesn't, then that's your perfect opportunity to eat it right away. After all, it's broken anyway, right?

Keep cutting until you have your first cookie sheet full.

Bake for about 8 minutes or so but watch closely. The edges should just about brown a tiny bit. Of course you could also try to take photos and simultaneously work on the next batch with your little boy sitting on the counter, playing with the flour pot, while your husband calls to tell you that the plumber will be over in five minutes to fix the outdoor faucet. In that case they might end up just a tad more on the brown side. But they'll still taste good.

Now, you can call it a day at this point. Or you could always get your icing sugar and lemons out.

Add some food coloring. Guess who screamed "I want yellow, mommy!". Yep.

There are lots of creative ways to get the sticky icing on your cookies. The old way of holding the cookie at the edges and just using your brush is entirely overrated. Especially since this makes your fingers all sticky. Now, that's ok when it comes to some icky stuff, but sweet icing? No way. Better use a plate and soak your cookie in icing. Really.

Always hide that other hand!

Same on big brother's side. He used a spoon to get the icing on the cookie.

See that left hand?

The end result will be almost too pretty to eat. At least if you ask your mom. Too bad she won't allow you to eat all of them right now.

Oh, here's the recipe, btw. But quick, you should do this before summer, because they don't like high temperatures.

125g butter
75g icing sugar (plus more for decorating)
Salt
1 egg
250g flour

Cream soft butter with sifted sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the egg. Then add flour and mix only until crumbs form. Using your hands, form a dough and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.

Yum.

Enjoy!
Swenja