Directions

I. Stir flour, baking powder, malted milk powder, and nutmeg together in a bowl until combined.

2.In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sour cream together with sugar until smooth. Blend in vanilla and egg whites, beating again until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing until combined.

3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours or over night. The longer the dough is refrigerated the easier it is to handle.

4. Preheat oven to 325 F. Working with a third of the dough, roll it out to ¼-inch thickness on a lightly floured board or pastry cloth. (Keep remainder of dough refrigerated until ready use.) Cut cookies in to shapes using 2- to 3-inch floured cookie cutters. Carefully transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets.

5. Bake cookies until set and lightly browned on the bottom, about 8 minutes or until cookies has risen and looks set around the edges. Don’t let the edges of the cookies brown or they will turn from soft and chewy to hard and crunchy. After removing from oven, let cookies stand about 1 minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

6. After cookies have cooled completely, use a pastry knife spread icing or pipe it onto cookies using a pastry bag. While icing is still wet, sprinkle with decorating sugar or decorate with dots or swirls of colored icing or candies.

White Icing: Beat sugar with meringue powder and water until thick and white, about 7 minutes. Icing may be tinted with food coloring at this point. Keep icing covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying out. If necessary, use a little warm water to thin frosting to the right spreading or piping consistency.