Christmas Cookie Roundup II

This year I was going all out. This year I was going to make all of my cookies with real butter, rather than my old faithful Imperial sticks.

Things started off alright. I made sugar cookies (I'd heard my mother in law likes them) and I wanted to try my royal icing skills again. So I made a batch of Christmas trees ...


But if you look closely, the cookie doesn't quite look the like the same texture. Remember these? They were better, even if the decoration wasn't. Thank goodness the royal icing hardened, otherwise these might have just fallen apart.

Sort of like these.

My beloved poinsettia cookies just weren't the same, and I'm blaming the butter. I mean, sure the family recipe says "butter." What that means is Country Crock, or whatever was on sale or on hand at the moment. Whoops, I think I just cracked the code and spilled the family secrets. These were still good, but couldn't possibly make it to St. Louis in any form. I could hardly move them.

The verdict? Butter is not better. I love you, Imperial.

Next: the final countdown.