Is it just me or is it harder than heck to find a good sugar cookie recipe?
See, due to my extreme cookie laziness I just can’t handle the recipes that are ALL made to be rolled out and cut out with cookie cutters. Yeah, that’s not happening.
You want me to do all the mixing (which inevitably calls to add each egg one at a time – really? Never done that and I’m still kickin’). You want me to chill the dough. You want me to prepare a surface for rolling out the dough. You want me to roll out the dough to a perfect thickness. You want me to cut out each cookie and then bake them. All for a sub-par sugar cookie.
No thanks. I’ll take lazy any day.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that the cut-out sugar cookies are cute when they’re all decorated and festive. Who doesn’t love cute things? I think if you saw my reaction to things like baby shoes and the ski outfit that Nate and I bought for our little dude (yes, it’s early – so what?) then you’d know that I love cute things as much as the rest of the world. Or maybe more. But cookies? I’ll take the simplest, most melt-in-your-mouth undecorated cookie over the cute one.
Any day.
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar + another 1/2 cup for the tops of the cookies
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 4 1/3 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
Cream together the butter, oil, and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth. Sift together the dry ingredients and mix into the wet until just combined. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350. Scoop the cookies into 1 Tbsp balls and place about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat. Dip the bottom of a glass in the remaining extra sugar and press each cookie to about 1/4 inch in thickness – this should give you a nice sugar crust. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes, until you just start to see the bottoms turning golden. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely. Or devour. You know, whatever.
All I can say is that this makes a lot of cookies. And for good reason – melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness doesn’t come every day in sugar cookie form!
These are my favorite Christmas cookies! 🙂
I have a recipe like this with the the cream of tartar and it makes the cookies so good! Almost like a sand type cookie that completely melts in your mouth. All your cooking and baking looks delicious. I tried your method of putting mayonnaise under the turkey skin (but I was making a chicken) and it was so delicious and moist- now my new method to rub that sucker under the skin with butter and mayonnaise!
My problem with sugar cookies is that I invariably end up using a different recipe and then don’t remember which recipe was deemed THE best. They always turn out differently which means that I have to keep baking even MORE sugar cookies. Quite the plight, I tell you.
Well, you just made searching for the perfect sugar cookie recipe much easier! They do look quite angelic!! 🙂
I hate rolling, and cookie cutting, and decorating. Its okay if I have a Christmas movie on, but the cookies take so much work and never taste as good as I want. I’m excited to try these! They sound right up my alley.
i haven’t even started baking yet. i’m so screwed!
cant wait to make these! your cookie recipes never let me down.
So pretty!
Now I think it is funny that you sift things. An angel food cake is the only thing I ever sift flour for :o) There that is my lazy baking confession .
It is definitely tough to find a good sugar cookie recipe!! I use a family recipe for ours, and when I’ve strayed and explored other recipes, they never seem to taste as good!
These look perfect.
Awesome, these have always been my favorite sugar cookie as well. I posted it this week, too! Funny, small world.
These sound so yummy! Love this!
Powdered sugar in sugar cookies sounds really nice.
I just posted a recipe for cut out sugar cookies, haha, but mine are much less pretty than yours. 🙂