1,000 Christmas Cookies for Washington Regional
Every December, St. Paul’s comes together for one of our sweetest traditions—baking and sharing Christmas cookies with the staff and guests at Washington Regional Hospital. This year, we’re once again inviting our parish bakers to help us reach our goal of 1,000 homemade Christmas cookies as a joyful gift of hospitality for our community.
Here’s how you can participate:
Bake a batch (or two—or four!) of cookies using our no-spread sugar cookie recipe (see below) and bring them undecorated to the St. Paul’s kitchen on Friday, December 12. On Saturday, December 13 at 10:00 a.m., our youth will gather to decorate the cookies together, adding color, sparkle, and lots of holiday cheer. Once decorated and boxed, the cookies will be delivered to Washington Regional Hospital for their hospitality ministry to staff and guests throughout the Christmas season.
We ask each volunteer to contribute 50–100 cookies if possible—more if you’re feeling especially festive! The recipe will be available on the website and as a printable download for your convenience. This is a wonderful way to share your gifts, your time, and a little Christmas joy with those who care for our community every day.
Thank you for helping us turn flour, sugar, and butter into love made visible this Advent.
No-Spread Sugar Cookie Recipe
Equipment
3” round cookie cutter
Rolling pin
Ingredients
1 C. Butter (2 sticks) room temperature
1 C. Granulated Sugar
1 whole Egg
3 C. Flour
1 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar until fluffy
Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder
Add dry ingredients slowly to the fluffy butter mixture and stir until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl
Now, place the bowl in the fridge to rest for 10 minutes while you prepare your pans and rolling surface.
Use parchment lined baking pans
You do not need to knead this dough. Simply take out a heaping handful, very lightly flour the surface you are rolling on, and place down the heap. Next, press your hands onto the dough to flatten it out, then lightly flour the top and use your rolling pin to roll the dough to a quarter of an inch thickness. You can always go a little thicker, but try not to roll any thinner.
Once thickness is achieved, use your 3” cookie cutter to cut cookies, and a thin spatula will help them release easily from the counter top. Transfer cookies to parchment lined pans.
Bake for 7-9 minutes, or just until the very edges have some slight color. These cookies do not bake until golden brown. Check to make sure the surface is not super shiny, and that’s how you know they are done.
*** This recipe doubles, triples, quadruples, and more beautifully!***