Silver Bells

Throughout the years Christmas has settled on a single consistent element…the cookies my mother started baking the year I was born.

Back then Gold Medal Flour had printed the recipe on the side of their bag, just in time for a young household of college students (with an infant and toddler) to festoon a Christmas tree with brightly decorated cookies, when cash for glass ornaments was out of their budget.

Unlike a traditional sugar cookie, these are buttery—melt in your mouth—almond flavored shortbreads. They take to vanilla icing with aplomb, and hold the shape from any cutter like a member of the Queen’s Guard standing at attention.

Everyone loves them.

This year with Covid beating back plans for celebrations with friends and loved ones, I’m turning back to the roots of our family holidays. The menu will be simple—just the three of us—and our annual trip out to buy fresh ravioli has morphed into a simpler dish of homemade pasta and salad, but the finishing touch will be my mother’s Silver Bells Christmas cookies. And this year, I might even use a bell cutter instead of the Christmas Dinosaur—or maybe I’ll cut them in squares and ink words of love and gratitude for what we have to share.

Recipe: Silver Bell Christmas Cookies

Preheat Oven 375 degrees bake no more than 10 minutes (or until the edges are golden brown)

Ingredients

1 cup of soft butter

½ cup sifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 1/4 cups of flour

¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Mix butter, sugar, almond extract until incorporated.

Sift flour and salt, then stir into butter mixture

Roll out into ¼” thick rectangle and chill for an hour

Cut with bell-shaped cutter, bake at 375 degrees on ungreased cookie sheet, for approximately 10 minutes. Cool. Frost with thin white icing. Decorate

White Icing:

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 ½ tablespoon of water

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

Happy Holidays! LE Franks!