Meltaway Cookies

In an effort to be more like my friend Amanda at Cooking Three Handed, I went web searching for a cookie recipe that was fast, easy and took only ingredients likely to be in my  kitchen already.  I often fail to make yummy treats because I didn't plan ahead and buy chocolate chips or raisins. 

I found a recipe for Meltaway Cookies.  It looked easy enough even for me.  I also decided to "mix it up" a bit.  I separated the dough into 3 batches.  I colored the first batch red and added a smidge of peppermint extract.  The next batch I colored yellow and added lemon extract.  The third batch I colored green but left unflavored for a control group.

Ingredients:

1 c. soft butter
1/2 c. sifted confectioners' (plus extra to roll in afterward)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt

 

 

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix thoroughly butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla. Sift flour, salt; stir in. Drop teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet (cookies do not spread). I had the kids use a spoon and make the "balls" but they ended up too large so we sort of tore them apart and plopped them, unshaped.  They were all different and not perfectly round, but I liked them that way.  Bake about 8 minutes until set, but not brown. While still warm sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. The sprinkling didn't work for me, so I plopped them in the confectioners' sugar and rolled them around in it.  Makes 5 dozen cookies the size of a quarter.

 

Many of my children actually preferred the plain to the flavored, but all were a hit.  The coloring made them more festive and I suspect that my children would not have been as excited to eat them had they been "dough colored".

So now you have a fun, family friendly, quick and easy cookie recipe that calls for no specialty ingredients.