1986 winner: rolled animal cookies

1 c  butter, softened
      1 c  Sugar
      1    Egg
      2 tb Whipping cream
      1 ts baking powder
    1/2 ts Baking soda
    1/2 ts Salt
      1 ts vanilla
      3 c  Sifted all-purpose flour
           Decorations: colored sugar,
           Raisins, chocolate
           Sprinkles, chocolate chips
 

    time: 7 minutes
  
      1. Cream butter. Gradually add sugar and cream well. Blend in the
    egg, cream, baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Gradually
    add flour and mix well. Chill dough until firm, several hours (it is
    hard to roll out otherwise).
      2. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on a floured board to
    about 1/8- inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a flour-dipped
    cookie cutter. Place on ungreased or lightly greased cookie sheet.
      3. Decorate with colored sugar and chocolate sprinkles and use
    raisins or chocolate chips for the eyes of the animals. Bake for 5-7
    minutes or until a little brown. Cool on racks. Don't forget to cut
    the little holes if you wish  to hang on the tree.
      Note: Dough will keep several days or a week in the refrigerator if
    you don't get around to cutting right away. I store the cookies in
    tightly covered tins and they are very good keepers if the children
    don't find them.
      Winner Beverly Bergstrom of Hinsdale recounts making rolled animal
    cookies:   "We called them animal cookies although there were many
    cutters that were not animals. We would cut small pieces of paper
    drinking straws and insert them in the top of each cookie and then
    bake them. The little piece of  straw was removed just as the cookies
    came from the oven, leaving a perfect little hole to put a colored
    string through so the cookie could be hung on our huge Christmas tree.
      "My sister and I would always make sure lots of the cookies were
    hung around the back of the tree. The tree was in the corner of the
    living room leaving a space behind, where we could crawl in. A
    favorite pastime during the holiday season was to lie on the floor
    behind the tree and using no hands, take tasty bites of the cookies,
    leaving behind the empty strings decorating the tree. Grandma would
    always pretend anger when she 'discovered' the empty strings and no
    cookie. It was a good game." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food
    Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 4, 1986
 
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