Spice Cookies aka "Spice Elephants"

2 c. packed brown sugar (I always use dark brown sugar-love the intense flavor)
1 ½ c. butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
4 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. baking soda

In large mixing bowl, beat together sugar and butter. Add egg; beat until light and fluffy. In separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add to beaten mixture; mix well. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. (I often make up to this point and then put dough in Tupperware or other tightly sealed bowl and refrigerated until I’m ready to bake, up to several days, even.)

Preheat oven to 375º. On floured covered surface, roll dough to about 1/8 inch thick. (Best to do in small batches so dough stays fairly chilled-I generally roll out about a sixth to eighth of the dough at a time.) Cut with floured cookie cutter. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet about ½ - ¾ inch apart. (I do this with a small spreader.) Reshape trimmings into a ball and place back in refrigerator while cutting a fresh batch of dough.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before removing from pan. Finish cooling on rack or tea towels.

How many this makes depends on size of cookie cutter used. I generally get about 10 dozen spice elephants from one recipe.

This recipe comes from a cookbook I purchased from a Cookbook Club many years ago. (Great Little Sweet Treats by Vanessa-Ann; published by Meredith Press, Des Moines, Iowa, 1992) The recipe, "Sun, Moon and Stars," called for you making cardboard patterns of those shapes and even sculpting faces for the sun and moon cookies. Since one of my mottos is "Have occasion, have cookie cutter," Elizabeth and I decided just to adapt recipe to use whatever cookie cutters caught our fancy. Since Toby and Elizabeth spurred me to active Republican Party service, these cookies usually take the shape of the Republican Elephant, thus "Spice Elephants." If I have the time, these usually find their way to Republican functions. I teased Glenn when I made them for the "goody bags" for the Young Republican National Convention Selection Committee several years ago, that those cookies were the reason Indianapolis was chosen to host that event last year. For Christmas, I like to use my Pine Cone, Reindeer, and "Gingerbread Man" cookie cutters - those are supposed to be brown and require little, if any, decoration. People often tell me they love my "Gingerbread" cookies, but I have to correct them, since as you can see there is no ginger in them! Blessings to you.