Spiced Holiday Sugar Cookies

For Cookies: 1. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat granulated sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Refrigerate dough 2 hours or overnight until firm.

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Roll out dough on lightly floured surface* to 1/8-in (0.25 cm) thickness. Cut into shapes with favourite cookie cutters. Place on greased baking sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

For Colourful Cookie Icing: 1. Mix all ingredients except food colours. Stir in additional milk as needed to thin icing or more icing sugar to thicken, if needed. Place small amount of icing into small shallow bowls, using one bowl for each colour desired. Stir drops of food colour into icing until desired shade is reached.

To ice cookies, hold cookie by its edge and dip top of cookie into icing or spoon the icing onto the cookie using a teaspoon. Place iced cookies on wire rack set over foil-covered baking sheet to dry. The foil covered sheet will catch drips. To add decorative detail to cookies, spoon tinted icing into resealable plastic bags. Snip off a tiny piece of the corner. Squeeze icing through the hole in the bag to decorate cookies.

Chef’s Tip: *Mix ¼ cup (50 mL) all-purpose flour and ¼ cup (50 mL) icing sugar to use for dusting the surface. Variations: For the variations below, omit the cinnamon and nutmeg. Use the following extract in place of vanilla extract in the cookies. • Almond Holiday Sugar Cookies: Use 1 tsp (5 mL) Club House Pure Almond Extract • Orange Holiday Sugar Cookies: Use 1 tsp (5 mL) Club House Pure Orange Extract • Lemon Holiday Sugar Cookies: Use 1 tsp (5 mL) Club House Pure Lemon Extract