Yield: 36 Servings
| Measure | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1 cup | Unsalted butter, softened |
| 8 ounces | Cream cheese, softened |
| 1½ cup | Sugar |
| 1 each | Egg |
| 1 teaspoon | Vanilla |
| 3 cups | Flour |
| 1 teaspoon | Baking powder |
Preparation time: 20 minutes Chilling time: Several hours Baking time: 10 to 15 minutes
1. Cream butter and cream cheese in large mixer bowl. Beat in sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour and baking powder. Chill several hours.
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into small balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with a glass that has been dipped in vanilla sugar (sugar in which you have stored a vanilla bean) or plain sugar.
3. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.
Winner Jeanette McCarthy, Downers Grove, Illinois, describes her impatient person's "I'm hungry" cookies: "When I was a child, part of our Christmas celebration involved visits to my father's relatives during the time between Christmas and Epiphany. Great-Aunt Elizabeth came from a family whose women had been cooks for a wealthy family in Hungary. As a result, her cooking was usually slightly different and somewhat elegant.
"A treasured memory of Christmas at Great-Aunt Elizabeth's house was a cookie that I never learned to eat in moderation. Although my mother warned me not to say anything, one of the first things I would say upon arrival was, 'I'm hungry,' hoping that these cookies would appear. Much to my delight they usually did, and in fact, began also to appear at Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and any other time we got together to celebrate." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 4, 1986