Do not preheat oven yet. Dough must chill before baking.

1½ cups melted butter (3 sticks, 3/4 pound)

2½ cups white (granulated) sugar

2 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

3 drops red food coloring (or more if needed)

4 cups flour (there’s no need to sift it)

1/2 cup white sugar for later

Hannah’s Note: In the original recipe, these cookies are partially dipped in chocolate. If I don’t feel like dipping and drying all those cookies, I take a little shortcut you might want to try someday. Right before I mix the flour into the cookie dough, I add a 12-ounce (2 cups) package of miniature chocolate chips. (If they don’t have the mini-chips in your store, you can use regular and chop them up in smaller pieces with a knife or in a food processor.) Once the flour is mixed in, chill the dough and bake according to the original directions.

Another trick we use at The Cookie Jar is to make half of the batch pink and the rest green for a pretty mix of cookies on the platter.

Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Add the sugar and stir. Let it cool slightly. Then add the beaten eggs, baking soda, salt, and peppermint extract, stirring after each addition.

Add the red food coloring, stir it in, and then check the color of the dough. It should be bright pink. If the color’s too pale, add another drop or two of food coloring and stir it in thoroughly.

Add flour in one-cup increments, stirring after each one. The dough will be quite stiff.

Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. (Overnight is fine too.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

Place the 1/2 cup of white sugar in a small bowl.

Spray two cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. Or use parchment paper to line the two cookie sheets.

Roll the chilled dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll the balls in the sugar so that the whole ball is coated.

Place the dough balls on the cookie sheet, 12 to a standard-size sheet. Press the balls down just a little with a metal spatula (or the palm of your impeccably clean hand) so they won’t roll off when you carry them to the oven.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. They’ll flatten out the rest of the way all by themselves.

Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once the cookies are cool, transfer them to sheets of wax paper and prepare to dip them in chocolate. (If you used parchment paper, you can frost them right on that.)

CHOCOLATE DIP

2 cups chocolate chips (12 ounces)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup, 1/4 pound)