I like to eat (good) cookies, but I am not likely to bake them unless it’s “the Season.” It’s best to make this an artistic, Picasso, free-for-all endeavor. Have at it! And eat the cookies at your own risk (calories and colors).

Decorating cookies “free-style” is fun and creative

INGREDIENTS:

• 500 g flour (ca. 3.5 cups)
• 250 g sugar (1 cup)
• 250 g butter (2 sticks)
• 2 eggs
• vanilla aroma & lemon zest
• juice from 1/2 lemon

MAKE A SHORTBREAD DOUGH: Use an oversize bowl, pour the dry ingredients in, make a valley in the middle for the eggs, drop the butter pieces around the margin, mix the eggs up with a fork in the valley, then knead the dough thoroughly. It should feel like fairly stiff “play dough”. Cool that off in the fridge for an hour.

Then roll out the dough and cut out cookies. Bake them for 10 min at 350 F. Collect them in a flat dish.

FOR DECORATING: Make sugar icing. Use 2 Tbsp. meringue powder (or 1 egg white in the old country) with ca. 2 cups of confectioners sugar and ca. 2 Tbsp.  lemon juice (or water). Get a feel for the icing consistency. It should cover real well and not be runny. You can thin out the icing with a few drops of water or add more sugar if it’s too liquid.

SPRINKLE with various sprinkles shapes and decorate with small candies. Paint them with neon colored gel icing (in small tubes) or cookie icing.