Sugar Cookie Quilt Blocks
½ cup butter
⅓ cup shortening
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer about 30 seconds or until softened. Add about half the flour. Add sugar, milk, baking powder, vanilla and dash of salt. Beat until combined. Beat or stir in remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill about 3 hours or until easy to handle.
Roll each half of dough on a lightly floured surface to ⅛ to ¼ inch thickness. Cut dough into 4” squares. Place 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet. Using a wooden skewer, score the pattern lines.
Paint the cookie-quilt-block with Egg Paint. Bake in a 375°F oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until done. When the cookies are baked, the egg mixture becomes shiny and the scored lines separate slightly, resembling the seams of a pieced quilt.
Egg Paint
Beat together 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl. Divide mixture among 3 or 4 bowls. Add 2 or 3 drops of a different food colouring to each bowl; mix well. Paint on unbaked cookies with a small, clean paint brush. If the coloured mixtures thicken while standing, stir in water a drop at a time. Cover egg mixture with plastic wrap between batches of cookies.
Source: Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookies 1992
Submitted by Karen Greaves