Later this week, I will be making a butt-load of cookies. Now, seeing as our lil’ shindig has a Halloween theme, I want to do your standard, fun, poorly decorated, but tasty-tasting sugar cookies.
So my first question: does anyone have a particularly good (and pref. easy) sugar cookie recipe? A web search brings up any number of recipes, but what is your favorite?
I’m also open to other cookie ideas. Whatever you’ve got, I’ll take!
Plus, this is just a great excuse for all of us to talk about cookies. And really, who doesn’t like cookies? . . . Terrorists. That’s who. Actually, no. Even terrorists like cookies.
Not a sugar cookie recipe, but these are always a hit and are super-easy to make.
First you spread smooth peanut butter on one Ritz Cracker and sandwich it with another. Break up a pack of almond bark candy (sometimes called confectioner’s coating…it’s a big pack of white-chocolate-looking cubes found near the chocolate chips at the grocery store) into a bowl. Add about a tablespoon of shortening, then microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until completely melted and creamy. Dip the Ritz sandwiches into the almond bark with large spoon to coat them. Lift, draining off the extra coating, and lay them on wax paper to harden.
While they are still wet you can put sprinkles or a few holiday M&Ms on them. I have also mixed in candy melts with the almond bark to color the whole batch.
You can also buy chocolate almond bark and make half-and half. When I do that I fill a baggie with some of each color, snip a tiny bit off of a corner, and drizzle the white cookies with the dark chocolate, and the dark cookies with the white.
Also not cookies, but one of my favorite Halloween treats: dried apricots dipped in melted chocolate chips. They need to harden for an hour or so on wax paper in the fridge, but they’re very easy and tasty. And they’re black and orange!
I’ve posted this recipe before,and let me say, it’s not originally my own, but I have modified it over the years. It makes kick ass cookies. I’ll second the call for parchment paper (for any baking, you just can’t beat it), and add a hint to invest in a pastry cloth and rolling pin cover. It makes things so much easier. The Most Awesome Sugar Cookie Recipe
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening or butter*
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (double the extract for really strongly flavored cookies: I use 1tsp vanilla, and 1 tsp almond for an amaretto-ish flavor)
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Early in the day or the day before:
In a large bowl cream the shortening and the sugar. Add the eggs, extract, and milk. In a medium bowl mix the dry ingredients with a wire whisk. Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl. Mix with mixer until well combined. With hands, shape dough into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Roll half or 1/3 dough at a time, keep the rest refrigerated. For crisp cookies, roll dough, paper thin. For softer cookies, roll 1/8 " to 1/4" thick. With floured cookie cutter, cut into shapes. Re-roll trimmings and cut.
Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on cookie sheets. Decorate*** Bake 8 minutes or until very light brown. With pancake turner, remove cookies to racks; cool. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.
*If you want “sturdy and tasty” cookies you should use 1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter. Shortening makes cookies sturdy and butter makes them tasty.
***If decorating with colored sugars: Prepare cookies by brushing with heavy cream or an egg white slightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with decorative toppings.
***If decorating with food colors: Mix 1 egg yolk and 1/4 teaspoon water. Divide mixture among several custard cups. Tint each with different food color to make bright colors. (If paint thickens while standing, stir in a few drops of water.) Paint designs on cookies with small paint brushes.
This time of year, I start baking a lot, and this is my most requested recipe:
World’s Best Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons grade B maple syrup
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin*
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon*
1/2 teaspoon ground all spice*
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg*
Pinch ground cloves*
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
12-oz bag of white chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixer, fitted with a paddle, cream the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy. Add the maple syrup and eggs. Mix to incorporate. Add the pumpkin and mix to incorporate. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool on racks. When cool, ice with the cream cheese frosting.
*If you want to skip all the tiny measuring, you can just use 1 cup of canned pumpkin pie mix – the kind that’s already spiced – or you could also just use 2 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice.
This is always a huge hit. I made 5 dozen about a month ago, and the 3 people I divided that among came back within 4 days demanding more.
I’ve posted this elsewhere in the 'Dope. The “Ginger Drops” recipe has long been in my wife’s family. Be warned: they’re addictive.
3/4 cup margerine
3/4 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup light molasses
3 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
2 tbsp. ginger
Beat margerine, shortening, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Add molasses. Add flour sifted with baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes about seven dozen cookies.
Let me know how you like them!
P.S. They really are better made with margerine instead of butter. Caveat baker.
The best sugar cookies I’ve made/eaten were similar to Odinoneeye’s. Use orange oil instead of or in addition to vanilla extract. There’s just something about the orange & vanilla combination that I love.
Thank you all for the suggestions! I’m going to make a bunch and I’m sure they will be loved by all (how could they not? They are COOKIES for cryin’ out loud! ;)).
So a silly question (I’m a terrible cook, so humor me please. My mom never did and that’s why I am here asking you fine folks :D). Should I make the sugar cookie dough a day early and let it sit in the fridge? I seem to recall that, that is the proper sugar cookie procedure.
I’m 56 now, and my favorite cookie is still one my brother and I learned to make as boys. You start with a basic oatmeal cookie recipe, like they used to have on the back of the Quaker box. Then, instead of raisins and nuts, you put in butterscotch chips.
Once, my brother and I forgot to put in the flour. By golly, they were pretty good that way, too.
My mom was determined that her boys would learn to cook. She told us, if we wanted cookies, we would have to learn to make them. It worked. My brothers and I are all good cooks. There were misfires, like when Ted started to make burnt-sugar cake, and got distracted. The kitchen smelled smoky for a while, and he ruined a pan. No big deal.
