Stepping back in time with My Cherished Cookbooks: Patriotic Cookies

For our Church on Sunday of 9/11 it was also the ick ff for our Sunday School starts back up for a new year. I was asked to bring some cookies for our fellowship time. So keeping with our theme of the day, I had to make Patriotic Cookies! I was given this cookbook "The Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn by my dear Mother-in-Law, Edna. It has a few good recipes that sure come in handy.

One of our favorites is the Cookie Pops recipe. In the book, it says these cookies are just right for gift giving or for selling at a school bake sale fundraiser. Usually, when I've made these with my daughter, Dana. We've inserted a wooden ice cream pop stick into each warm cookie, then let them cool. Wrap the cookies in clear cellophane and tie with a pretty ribbon around the top of the stick to secure the cellophane. But for this occasion, I opted out. Interesting how the process went...you'll see!

Place the cake mix, flour, melted butter, honey, and eggs in large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixter on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on low speed for 1 minute more.

By using the Pillsbury Stars and Stripes cake mix, it comes with these cute sprinkles. So add them in small increments with a rubber spatula, for then it will be all throughout the dough. We love SPRINKLES !

The cookie dough will be thick. With lightly floured hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Or you can use like I did, I got out my lil' scooper and didn't have to use my hands. Makes it go faster that's for sure and more uniformed 1-inch balls. And the BUTTER sure came through on these babies! Gotta love the BUTTER! I've learned you rarely do without THE BUTTER in baked goods.

Of course, I had to add more SPARKLE ! Love Coarse/ Sanding Sugar on cookies and other baked goodies!

This was the first batch to go in the 375 degree oven. Baked for 8 minutes. But when I checked them out about half way into baking...I noticed they did not flatten down. So I pressed them down for they were too poofy ball cookies for my liking.

So this is the 2nd batch, I used one of our glasses to press down.

Just had to ADD MORE SPARKLING SUGAR to Top them off !

Love SPARKLING SUGAR CRYSTALS on these COOKIES!

Patriotic SPARKLING Sugar Cookies
Makes 48 (2-inch) Cookies
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Baking Time: 8 to 12 minutes
Assembly Time: 15 minutes
Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the cookie sheets
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix ( I used Pillsbury Stars & Stripes, this time) Substitute a devil's food or chocolate cake mix for chocolate cookies
1 cup all-purpose flour
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 cup colored sugar sprinkles (I used white coarse/sanding sugar)
48 wooden craft sticks (if you want to make cookie pops, I opted out this time)

1. Place a rack in the cneter of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets with solid vegetable shortening. Set the pans aside.
2. Place the cake mix, flour, melted butter, honey, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Enjoy!