Martha and her Sugar Cookies

Back in 1982, I was given  a book called  Entertaining, by Martha Stewart.

The rest is history.....her's and mine.

She went on to become world famous as the Doyenne of Domesticity.

I went on to become a caterer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Nonetheless, I loved her style as it was so similar to what I envisioned.  She was a great inspiration
to me......in attempting recipes, food presentations and styling.

Early on I adopted her sugar cookie recipe.....we ended up always calling it "martha dough".
It was for rolled and cut out cookies and we utilized it in many ways,  for Halloween,
Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day and Easter cut-out cookies. We also used this
dough for our Linzer Cookies!  To this day, Martha Stewart still prints and re-prints this recipe
in her magazines and books.

Next weekend is our darling Mia's 4th birthday!  Many years ago, I purchased cookie cutters
1 through 5 so I could make the appropriate cookie for each grandchild's age.  This week I will
be working on Mia's number 4  cookies.  She told me she would like them to be pink.  I have not narrowed down the  decorating theme yet but I have til mid-week to think about that!

We always made the dough, wrapped it in saran and let it rest overnight in the fridge.

Here is Martha Stewart's Sugar Cookie Dough for Cut-Out Cookies (a/k/a martha dough)

2 C. flour
1/4 t. table salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 C. granulated sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

1.  Mix dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.
(**spoon flour into measuring cup and then level off with a straight edge)

2.  Cream butter and sugar in mixer til light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.
 (**break egg into small bowl or measuring cup and check for shells, then add to butter mixture)

3.  Slowly add dry ingredients. Scrape sides of bowl to incorporate flour mixture often.

4.  Dough will be stiff and mixer may labor a bit.

5.  Wrap dough in saran and chill for minimum of 30 minutes, but preferably overnight.

6.  Roll out with minimal flour, cut out and place cookies on baking sheet.  Chill for minimum
of 30 minutes, but preferably overnight (again!).

I purchased these cookies cutters from www.cheapcookiecutters.com.  They have 3,000 designs
of cookie cutters and are very inexpensive.

So the dough is made and resting in the fridge and tomorrow we start rolling them out!