Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Do not preheat oven yet—dough must chill before baking.

2 cups melted butter (4 sticks)

2 cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar (not sifted)

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (critical!)

1 teaspoon salt

4¼ cups flour (not sifted)

½ cup white (granulated) sugar in a small bowl (for later)

Melt butter. Add sugars and mix. Let cool to room temperature and mix in the eggs, one at a time. Then add the vanilla, lemon zest, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Mix well. Add flour in increments, mixing after each addition.

Chill dough for at least one hour. (Overnight is fine.)

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. and place rack in the middle of the oven.

Use hands to roll dough in walnut-sized balls. Roll dough balls in a bowl of white sugar. (Mix white sugar 2 to 1 with colored sugar for holidays—green for St. Pat’s Day, red and green for Christmas, multicolored for birthdays.) Place on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. Flatten dough balls with a greased spatula.

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (They should have a tinge of gold on the top.) Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a rack to finish cooling. They can be decorated with frosting piped from a pastry bag for special occasions or left just as they are.

Used these for the chorale’s fund-raiser decorated with music notes in fudge frosting—rave reviews!

Yield: 8 to 10 dozen, depending on cookie size.

Chapter Twenty-One

Hannah had just turned over the baking to Lisa and poured herself a cup of coffee when the phone rang. “That’s got to be Mother. She’s the only one who calls me this time of the morning.”

“Do you want me to get it?” Lisa offered helpfully, even though her hands were covered with powdered sugar.

“No, it’ll only postpone the inevitable.” Hannah lifted the receiver and gave her standard greeting. “The Cookie Jar. Hannah speaking.”

“I’m so glad I caught you, dear. I promised the girls I’d check. Are you booked for the second Thursday in December?”

Hannah stretched out the phone cord and walked over to her calendar, flipping the pages to December. No one booked this early, and Hannah knew that her mother was just fishing for information about Max Turner. “I’m free, Mother.”

“Good. I joined a new group.”

“That’s nice.” Hannah gave the appropriate response. She really should be more grateful. Delores had become a joiner since Hannah’s father had died, and her groups always booked Hannah to cater their events. “What’s the name of this group, Mother?”

“The Lake Eden Quilting Society, dear. They meet every other Thursday in the back room at Trudi’s Fabrics.”

Hannah obediently wrote down the information, but she was puzzled. As far as she knew, her mother had never picked up a needle in her life. “You’re sewing now, Mother?”