Monday, September 15, 2008

Sugar-pie honey-bunch, you know that I love... cookies...


I really like cookies. Mmm.... Chocolate chip cookies, perfection. Molasses cookies, to die for. Snickerdoodles, butter cookies, butterscotch cookies, swedish heirlooms, all up there. But sugar cookies, not my favorite. I often feel like sugar cookies have a soda-y, almost bitter aftertaste that I do not enjoy. Maybe it's because they're so sweet to start with, that the aftertaste can't possibly stand up to it, it's bound to be less sweet, I don't really know. But I've decided that there have to be some good sugar cookies out there, so I started looking around on allrecipes.com.

I found a recipe called "Soft Sugar Cookies IV" which I decided to give a shot. The cookies ended up being quite tasty, and the aftertaste was much less pronounced than in many other varieties I've tried. I don't think that sugar cookies will ever be my favorite, but these cookies are quite tasty in a sugary, sweet way. You might possibly hear your arteries give a small whimper as you eat them, but feel free to disregard this. Especially while warm, these cookies are almost perfect--sugary, fluffy, warm, melt-in-your mouth good. And even now, a week later, the leftover still aren't half bad. They're a little drier and a little bit more crumbly, but still an acceptable date for a cold glass of milk.

Soft Sugar Cookies
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl cream together the shortening and butter for several minutes. Beat in the sugar and cream until sugar and fats are well combined. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, set aside. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in small increments, beating thoroughly after each addition.


Fill a small bowl with granulated sugar--I used a mix of white and colored sugars. Roll the dough into one inch balls, roll each ball in the granulated sugar to coat, and space out the balls of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are mostly firm on top and lightly golden brown on the bottom. Remove carefully from pan with a thin spatula so they won't break. Let cool on a wire rack, then store in an airtight container.

According to the original recipe on allrecipes.com this made 24 cookies, but I got closer to 60 out of it, so I guess it all depends on how big you want to make your cookies. If you're making them bigger definitely let them bake an extra minute or two.

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