1. With a stand mixer prepare cookie dough, cream sugar and butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add eggs and flavoring.
3. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and add to butter mixture. Mix well.
4. Divide dough in half and place between two sheets of parchment paper to roll into desired thickness, 1/4 to 1/2″.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.
5. Put the rolled dough including the parchment paper on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer.  Your dough will be chilled and ready to cut and bake with no wait and no added flour!  Repeat the process with scraps after cutting cookies.
6. With 2″ round scalloped edged metal cookie cutter, cut out several rounds of cookies.  Remove excess dough, roll and repeat.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Do not allow to brown. Let cool on rack.

Frosting Cookies

1. In three separate bowls, add 1/2 cup canned frosting to each bowl.
2. Drop red food gel in one bowl, navy food gel in second bowl and no gel in third bowl.
3. Stir to blend with separate spoons.
4. Fill each pastry bag with each colored frosting.
5. With a shallow bowl, add 1/2 cup white frosting to bowl.  Microwave 15 seconds until melted.
6. With cooled cookie, dip one cookie upside down into melted white frosting.  Allow to drip excess frosting off cookie.  While frosting is soft, pipe red center in round strings, pipe white rings around the red, and pipe blue around the white.  Repeat process until entire cookie is covered with rings of colored frosting.
7. With a tooth pick, beginning in center of cookie, lightly drag the wet frosting to the outer edge of cookies.  Divide the dough into quarters and drag three passes with in each quadrant.  Sounds complicated but once you do it you will see that you are forming a spider type web.
8. Allow cookies to dry before serving.  You can refrigerate these cookies until ready to serve.