This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Crisco®. The opinions and text are mine.

I love the holiday season! From the smell of the Christmas tree to wrapping presents while singing Christmas carols and spending time with family-it is such a joyous time of year! But for my family, it’s also the busiest time. We love having people over and hosting parties. From being a new mom and keeping up with work, I’m always looking for ways to save time, especially when it comes to entertaining.  One of my time saving tips is to always keep Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening on hand. You don’t have to let the shortening get to room temperature before using it and since it has a higher melting point than butter, you don’t have to “chill” the dough before baking!  I love to make a large batch of sugar cookie dough the morning before I plan to have people over. Shortly before they arrive I start to bake batches of cookies one at a time.  There’s nothing better than the smell of cookies baking in the oven.  It takes very little effort and instantly makes folks feel welcome. Here are some baking tips for making the dough your own. Plus, scroll down for my Sugar Cookie Birthday Cake Sandwich Cookie recipe.

TIP #1 Get thicker, airy and light-texture sugar cookies by replacing butter with Crisco® All-Vegetable shortening.

TIP #2 Make a sugar cookie cake/pizza by pressing sugar cookie dough into a cake or pizza pan and baking.

TIP #3 Before baking, press wooden sticks into center of sugar cookie dough to make cookie pops. Great for holiday party favors or even for milk dunking!

TIP #4 For quick and easy decorating, add Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening when melting chocolate. This creates a smoother consistency perfect for dipping sugar cookies, fruit and pretzels (add ½ teaspoon Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening per 1oz of chocolate).

TIP #5 Create your own flavor combinations by adding dried fruits, nuts and/or candies to your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe.

Sugar Cookie Birthday Cake Sandwich Cookies

By Brandi Milloy

Yields 2-3 dozen

Ingredients

3 cups Pillsbury™ BEST™ All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup rainbow sprinkles

1 batch Crisco® Creamy Homestyle Vanilla Frosting

Directions

STEP ONE

HEAT oven to 350°F. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl until blended.

STEP TWO

BEAT shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

STEP THREE

BLEND in egg, milk and vanilla. Gradually blend in flour mixture. Fold in ½ cup sprinkles.

STEP FOUR 

DIVIDE dough in half. Roll out each half on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 2 ½ inch round fluted edge cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

STEP FIVE 

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until bottom edges are very light brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

STEP SIX 

To assemble sandwich cookie: Frost the bottom of one cookie and press another cookie on top.  Garnish edge of cookies with sprinkles. 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Crisco®. The opinions and text are mine.

What’s better than warm sugar cookies? How about hot chocolate cookie cups filled with fudgy frosting and topped with peppermint and marshmallows? These are perfect for those cold days when you want to curl up with a warm treat. You guys know I LOVE making cookie cups, but these might just be the cutest creations yet! Watch how to make these adorable desserts below and then scroll down for the full recipe!

These are so much fun to make

Start with your sugar cookie cup

Fill with chocolate fudgy frosting

Top with micro marshmallows

Sprinkle with crushed peppermint 

Add your pretzel handle using chocolate frosting

Press on the side of your cookie cup and hold to set

Ready to enjoy!

Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups

By Brandi Milloy

Yields 3 dozen

Ingredients

3 cups Pillsbury™ BEST™ All Purpose Flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 Pillsbury™ Filled Pastry Bag Chocolate Fudge Flavored Frosting

Crushed peppermint candies, for garnish

Micro marshmallows, garnish

Mini pretzels

Directions

STEP ONE

HEAT oven to 350°F. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl until blended.

STEP TWO

BEAT shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

STEP THREE

BLEND in egg, milk and vanilla. Gradually blend in flour mixture.

STEP FOUR

FORM dough into 1 tablespoon size balls and press into mini muffin tin and up the side to create a cup. Repeat this step until you’ve filled each tin.

STEP FIVE

Bake 10-12 minutes or until very light golden brown. Cool completely.

STEP SIX

To decorate: Pipe chocolate frosting into cups. Sprinkle with peppermint and marshmallows. To create the handle: break off the loops from pretzels and attach to the sides of the cookie cups using chocolate frosting.

Holiday Lights Sugar Cookies

If you’re planning to make a bunch of different types of holiday cookies this season, give my Holiday Lights Sugar Cookies a try – they’re too cute. These fluffy sugar cookies are made with Crisco®All-Vegetable Shortening, topped with crushed candies and strung together with candy string.

Holiday Lights Sugar Cookies                                                                                                     

By Brandi Milloy

Ingredients

3 cups Pillsbury™ BEST™ All Purpose Flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup Rainbow sprinkles

16 ounces white chocolate morsels, melted

Various hard candies, crushed

Sprinkles

Directions

STEP ONE

HEAT oven to 350°F. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl until blended.

STEP TWO

BEAT shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

STEP THREE

BLEND in egg, milk and vanilla. Gradually blend in flour mixture.

STEP FOUR

DIVIDE dough in half. Roll out each half on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with light bulb cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

STEP FIVE

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until bottom edges are very light brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

STEP SIX

To decorate: frost cookies with white chocolate and sprinkle with candies and sprinkles while wet. Thread candy string through hole to connect.

Photo Credit: Olivia Kuan

Full disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Crisco®. The opinions, text and sugar cookie recipe that will change your life are all mine…but it can be yours too. #sharingiscaring

When I was a little girl my fondest memories are of baking in the kitchen with my Mom. I’d stand on the chair pushed against the counter and lean over to help. It feels like I learned how to measure ingredients before I could walk.  They were the best cookies and we always used Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening.  They were soft, fluffy and noticeably better than cookies baked with butter. 

Photo Credit: Getty Images for Crisco

Every year around the holidays we would host a cookie exchange where friends and family would come over and bring several dozen cookies to share. It was the best because we’d get to try tons of different cookies.  And everyone would ask what our secret was to making these beautiful, moist, fluffy cookies and we would tell them it was the Crisco®.

My Mom’s sugar cookie trees were always super popular, followed by her butterscotch bars.  I could never choose a favorite because they were equally delicious!  This recipe is inspired by both of those cookies. It has that warm familiar flavor of brown sugar and creamy white chocolate with the soft light-texture sugar cookie complimented all by fleur de sel which acts like electricity through the entire cookie. It’s one of those cookies you can never have just one.  It’s so good I could cry.

Photo Credit: Getty Images for Crisco

It’s like when you run into an old friend and a flood of good memories come back and you wonder why you ever stopped being friends only to discover you can’t remember why and that feeling makes you sad.  If that feeling was a cookie, this would be it.  Yes, I’m being serious. It’s not a sad cookie. It’s like a time capsule cookie that brings you so much joy you just want to hold on to it forever because the feeling is so good and you don’t want it to go away again.  That is this cookie.  This is the only way to describe my Salted Butterscotch Sugar Cookies. You’ll actually want to apologize to it because it’s so good and it did nothing wrong for you to forget it’s amazing qualities, despite never having it before. I’ve never met someone that didn’t love this cookie and try to stuff a couple in their pocket before leaving.  Long after the party is over people will find a reason to bring up this cookie just so they can talk about it and reminisce about how good it is.  I’ve had people offer up their first born child in exchange for this recipe. Ok-maybe not that far….but you get the picture.  This is why this is the only sugar cookie recipe you need. Scroll down to salivating city and then run to your kitchen and bake these immediately.  Be sure to tag me on IG @BrandiMilloy with photos of your Salted Butterscotch Sugar Cookies!

Photo Credit: Olivia Kuan

Photo Credit: Olivia Kuan

Photo Credit: Olivia Kuan

Photo Credit: Olivia Kuan

Salted Butterscotch Sugar Cookies

By Brandi Milloy

Yields 4-5 dozen

Ingredients

3 cups Pillsbury™ BEST™ All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening (I swear by 1 cup baking sticks and keep them on hand in my pantry at all times)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

16 ounces butterscotch chips, melted

8 ounces white chocolate chips, melted

Fleur de sel, for garnish

Directions

STEP ONE

HEAT oven to 350°F. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl until blended.

STEP TWO

BEAT shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

STEP THREE

BLEND in egg, milk and vanilla. Gradually blend in flour mixture.

STEP FOUR

DIVIDE dough in half. Roll out each half on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 2 ½ inch round cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

STEP FIVE

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until bottom edges are very light brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

STEP SIX

To decorate: Spread butterscotch on center of cookie. Drizzle white chocolate on top and garnish with a sprinkle of fleur de sel.