HANUKKAH CUTOUT COOKIES
Source: Bon Appetit, December 1992
Makes about 6 dozen

FOR THE COOKIES:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or solid vegetable shortening, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
FOR THE ICING:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons (or more) milk
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 to 4 drops blue food coloring

TO PREPARE THE COOKIES:
Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in large bowl until light. Beat in egg, lemon juice, lemon peel and vanilla.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add to butter mixture and stir until well combined. Divide dough into 3 pieces. Flatten each into disk. Wrap each in plastic and chill 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll out 1 dough piece on lightly floured surface to thickness of 1/8 inch. Using Hanukkah cookie cutters dipped into flour, cut out cookies. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheets, spacing evenly. Gather scraps, re-roll and cut out additional cookies, chilling dough if necessary.

Bake until cookie edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool.

Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough pieces in batches.

TO PREPARE THE ICING:
Place sugar in bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons milk and lemon juice. Add more milk if icing is too thick to pipe. Transfer half of icing to another bowl. Mix food coloring into half of icing.

Spoon plain and colored icings into separate pastry bags fitted with small round tips or into parchment cones. Pipe icings decoratively onto cookies. Let stand until icing sets, about 2 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store cookies in single layers in airtight containers.)