These cookies were one of those fabulous last minute ideas you know you don’t have time for, should not even attempt, but yet you do because you can’t resist. There is absolutely nothing last minute about homemade sugar cookies. I never appreciated how much time was involved until I started making them regularly ~ make the dough, chill the dough, roll out the dough, bake, cool, make the royal icing, color the icing,  make icing for the border and icing to flood the cookie, and we haven’t even talked about the dishes that have accumulated or the packaging process. I’ve learned to spread the steps over several different days to make it manageable and fun. Luckily, I had dough in the freezer and royal icing from the day before. Another trick I’ve learned is that whenever I make a batch of dough, I make an extra batch to freeze. It’s a big time-saver and the cookies still taste fabulous and fresh. The dough will last up to a few months, but I always use it within a few weeks. Royal icing isn’t so long-lasting. After a couple of days, the color starts to separate. The next day works, just restir the icing to blend color completely.

This cookie inspiration came to me when the boy decided on an iPhone App gift card for his teacher for Christmas. His teacher has an an iPhone and loves technology, so we knew it would be a fun treat. In the last few months, the boy and I have become immersed in the world of apps. My iPhone was a birthday present, and the boy has an iPod touch. There are thousands of apps to choose from, which means thousands of cookie app possibilities. We ended up picking a few of the easy app. designs because we were short on time.

The cookies dried overnight, were then wrapped individually, and arranged in a pastry box. We also had to take advantage of the play on words and wrote “hAPPy Holidays” on the tag. The boy said they were a hit. Wouldn’t these be great for a birthday too? I can’t wait to make more!

Enjoy this last week before Christmas!