If you are an Ahlden, Christmas means SUGAR COOKIES!!! Anyone who has been at an Ahlden family function knows that we take sugar cookies very seriously. There isn’t just a few store bought frosted cookies. We bake enough cookies to feed a small army. This is necessary though since we are quickly multiplying into a small army. To put it into perspective for you….The process spanned three days (one for mixing, one for baking, and one for frosting/decorating). The total hours spent on the cookies exceeds eight hours. Fifteen Ahldens participated in the sugar cookie process. Grandma Ahlden’s sugar cookies are certainly a labor of love. It is A LOT of work, but they are a family tradition we couldn’t live without. Christmas Eve at Uncle Ronnie’s =Sugar Cookies!
My mom and I mixed all of the dough on the first day. It is best if it has time to chill in the fridge for several hours. The dough is much easier to handle if it is cool. We quadrupled the recipe for the Christmas Eve cookies. To get them mixed, mom and I used two super large bowls and strong wooden spoons. Believe it or not, we made so much dough that we used 10 2/3 cups of flour!! Multiplying all of our ingredients by four definitely challenged our math skills.
Grandma Ahlden, mom, and I did all of the baking on the second day. In my opinion, this is the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. Since we use cookie cutters, it is a very tedious step. First we roll out the dough with flour, next press the cutters down, then move them unto the baking sheet, and finally put them into the oven. This is all going on while there is already a batch baking and trying not to be burned. It takes a long time to get into a good pattern and figure out what each person’s job is. Once Grandma, Mom, and I got into the rhythm, it worked better. Grandma really enjoyed helping out in little ways, but she had trouble remembering not to grab the hot pans after they came out of the oven. I would not allow mom or grandma to make any angel cookies this year. Their necks are so fragile, and their heads pop off!
Frosting and decorating is definitely the most fun. This year, we had several extra special helpers. I thought it would be fun to invite all of the great-grand-girls for the decorating part. I was thrilled to have seven of my cousins there to help. This was the first time we had invited all the girls to decorate and frost cookies. It actually went surprisingly well. The girls probably went home with belly aches because we ate a couple dozen while we frosted. The girls kept saying, “I decorated this cookie so pretty, I’m gonna have to eat it!” Nothing like sugar cookies for breakfast!
Ahlden Sugar Cookies are probably not the best sugar cookies ever made. To be honest, I think the recipe is just so-so tasting. Their tradition is what makes them special. When Grams was baking with mom and I she said, “I wonder how big a mountain it would make if we piled up all the cookies we baked over the years?” It’s in the Ahlden blood to like sugar cookies. We can’t help it--- It’s Sweet to be an Ahlden!
Old Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies (Grandma’s Sugar Cookies)--- Lorraine AhldenRecipe
½ cup shortening (part butter or margarine)
1 cup sugar 1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour 1 t. baking powder
½ t. soda ½ t. salt
½ cup sour cream
Heat oven to 350.
Mix shortening, sugar, egg, and vanilla thoroughly.
Measure flour, blend dry ingredients.
Add to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream.
Chill dough. When you are ready to bake and cut out cookies, take only a small amount of dough out at a time. The dough should stay cold.
Bake 8 to 10 min at 350.
Note from Grandma Ahlden: This has been a favorite sugar cookie in our family for year. We have made them for several school parties, for Kristin’s wedding and our Christmas Eve party.
Lorraine’s Frosting Recipe
Make frosting with powdered sugar and milk. Add vanilla and mix well. To a 2 lb box of powdered sugar add 1 tbs of Crisco shortening to frosting. Be sure to mix until Crisco is blended well into the frosting mixture.
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