A little Easter Baking

Yesterday, I baked some Easter cookies and some marshmallow sweets. Today I'm baking hot cross buns. When I was married, in 1964, my mother gave me a brand new Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I have used it for all the basics since then. My husband bought me beautiful cookbooks through the years. I have bought myself what ever was the newest ones. (There must be a couple hundred) But this old friend is still the one I go to for many favorites. When my younger daughter went to live in Switzerland she asked me to bring her a copy of this book. I found one in an antiques shop. She left it with her friend when she moved back to the USA. Now that she is moving to her own apartment, I'm sure we'll begin looking for another copy.
 
















Sugar Cookies (Recipe from the 1963 edition, Good Housekeeping Cookbook)


4 cups all purpose flour
2½ teasp. baking powder
½ teasp. salt
⅔ cup butter
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teasp. vanilla extract
½ teasp. lemon extract (not in the GH recipe)
4 teasp. mik

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, and extracts, beat until very light and fluffy.
Combine dry ingredients. Mix in alternately with milk.
Refrigerate dough until easy to handle.
Preheat oven to 400℉.
Roll half of the dough at a time keeping the rest in the refrigerator. Cut into desired shapes. arrange cookies ½" apart.
Bake 9 min. or until delicate brown. Cool, decorate with royal icing.
Makes about 6 doz., depending on size.

And of course there must be Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday.
Much as I like to knead bread dough, this dough is sticky and so I let my bread machine do the hard part and I just sit back and take all the credit! (Shhhh, don't tell)
Using a Bread Machine standard milk roll, or sweet dough recipe that comes with your maker, I like to flavor the dough with cardamom and Fiori di Sicilia. (the flavor associated with panettone) Before the buns go into the oven, they are slashed with a cross. After they cool, pipe an icing cross .