I vaguely recall being told that these are named for my grandparents’ neighbors in Youngstown, but I could be making that up.
These cookies are kind of a big deal in our family, to the point that it really doesn’t seem like Christmas until my sisters’ spawn are coated with frosting and wandering around with red-and-green fingers and suspicious crumbs around their mouths (it’s okay, their aunt will also have suspicious crumbs around her mouth before the frosting session is through).
These cookies are not too sweet, the kids love to decorate them, and when it comes time to divvy up the cookie loot, the sugar cookies are always the first to be argued over. Beats Pillsbury all hollow.
Do not substitute butter on this recipe. We don’t know why, but margarine just works better.
Cream Together in a Heavy Duty Mixer:
- Sugar, 1 pound
- Margarine, 6 oz
- 1 egg
- Vanilla extract, 1 tsp
- Salt, 1 tsp
To This, Slowly Add
- Buttermilk, 12 oz
- Flour, 1 1/2 plus 1/8th pound of flour
- Cream of tartar, 1/4 tsp
- Baking soda, 1 tbs
- Mix together and let set overnight in the refrigerator.
- Before you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line some cookie sheets with parchment paper and set up your cooling racks.
- On floured counter, roll out small balls to 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to stamp out shapes.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Do not brown. Cookies will be set but pale.
- Frost with whatever frosting you like. In our family, it’s powdered sugar plus milk and/or butter. We try to keep it as plain as possible to let the simplicity of this cookie shine through.