Chewy Sugar Cookies

These cookies are great for decorating for Christmas! They don't need a lot of time in the oven, so watch them carefully!

Ingredients:

2 & 3/4 cups of flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 cup of softened butter

1 & 1/2 cups of white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla

3-4 tbsp of milk

Icing:

2-3 cups of icing sugar

3 tbsp of softened butter

hot water

1 tsp of almond extract

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375F.

Step 2: In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and powder.

Step 3: In another bowl, or a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Step 4: Gradually add in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add a tbsp of milk, 1 at a time, enough to make the dough moisten and soft, not wet.

Step 5: Take your dough and place it on a floured working surface. Roll out the dough until 1/4 inch thick. Take whatever cookie cutters you are using and begin cutting. Carefully pick up the cookie and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, just until lightly golden. If cooked too long the cookies won't be nice and chewy!

Step 6: Place the cookies on a cooling rack and proceed with the rest of the dough. Keep combining the dough together and rolling it out until you have used up all the dough.

Step 7: When the cookies are cool, begin to ice them!

For the Icing:

Place the softened butter in a large bowl or mixer. Add the almond extract and mix. Add 1 cup of icing sugar at a time, along with a tbsp of hot water. Mix in the butter into the icing sugar. Add another cup of icing sugar and a little more hot water. Keep mixing until you have reached the amount of icing you want.

Divide your icing into bowls. Add food colouring if you want to each different bowl. Take a little ziploc bag, add some icing and poke a small hole in one of ends of the bag. Begin icing!