Cut Out Cookies

 Cut out cooies, pre baking.  

My mother could make the most beatiful cut out cookies with colored sugars on top.  She had many, many cookie cutters.

My dad was a farmer, and he had dairy cows.  Around Christmas my mother would put in an order with the milk man, who picked up the farm's milk, for butter.  On the next pick-up, the butter would be deliered.  And the baking would begin.

Side note:  after my dad sold his dairy herd, he took a job as the milk man, driving the truck to farms and picking up milk.

I have my mother's recipes, for sugar cut outs and for gingerbread, but her artistry in baking those cookies has eluded me.  I've tried, probably almost every Christmas season, but the results are never right.

My mother had a few mishaps, like when a reindeer's hoof would break off or a sheet of cookies got too browned, but she ended up with many many pretty cookies.

This year I tried a shortbread kind of dough, without success once again.  The taste and texture just aren't there.   I'm not even sure that they are worth icing.