Holiday Butter Cut-outs

This recipe is from an old bakery in Indianapolis that closed in 1999, but I still remember waking up on Sundays to my dad bringing home one of Roselyn's "Alligator" coffee cakes, and getting their iced cutout cookies as special treats. Luckily, when they closed, they sold a limited number of cookbooks and my mom snatched one up. Anyway, here is the recipe! – Jessica Schmutt

1 cup butter

1 ¼ cup shortening

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

2 tsp salt

1 ½ tsp vanilla

1 egg white

4 egg yolks

5 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350. Add butter, shortening, sugar, salt and vanilla. Mix until smooth only. Add egg white and egg yolks. Blend in. Add flour. Mix until dough is stiff and waxy. Refrigerate dough until firm. Roll out dough between two sheets of wax paper. Using cookie cutter, cut out desired shapes. Bake at 350 for 13 min. Makes 4 dozen. [Can be used with the icing recipe below, which is wonderful, but difficult to work with, and you have to move quick while it's still warm! So, if you are baking with kids, I recommend just using a traditional buttercream or any other of your favorite cookie icings.]

Colored Dipping Icing

¾ cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

9 cups powdered sugar, divided

1 cup vegetable oil

¾ cup light corn syrup

1 ½ tsp vanilla

Food coloring

Combine water, sugar, and ½ cup of the powered sugar to a sauce pan and bring it to a rolling boil only. Add vegetable oil and corn syrup to a mixing bowl and add the cooked mixture to it. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until all the lumps are gone. Add vanilla while mixing and blend well. Add desired food coloring. While the mixture is still warm, spoon it over the cookies. [I recommend placing the cookies on a metal rack over waxed paper, then either spooning the icing over the cookies (if using more than one color, stick to simple designs), or dipping the top of the cookie in the icing and placing it on the rack, letting the extra icing drip over the sides.]