Monday, February 7, 2011

Sugar Cookies

I love my old sugar cookie recipe, but they don't hold their shape well. I did a bunch of research, and built my own recipe. I made several batches. With some trial and error, I finally created one with the taste I love that still hold their shape. Just adding flour makes them dry and shortening isn't the same as butter. Too much heat melts the sugar too fast and flattens the cookie, so a high sugar recipe wouldn't work with high temps. (The above picture: The white is my regular recipe with extra flour. The pink is less granulated sugar, temp 400. They look great but I didn't like the flavor as well. The purple was more sugar, soda, cream of tartar and 400 temp. The blue is the recipe below with powdered sugar.)
I traded out the baking powder for some baking soda and cream of tartar. And a friend of mine told me that granulated sugar melts at a different temperature than powdered sugar. She told me it's the granulated sugar that flattens out the cookies, so I traded that straight across. So, see what you think.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill for 1 hour. Roll 1/4 inch thick on floured surface. Cut out shapes. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min. Cool completely. Frost and decorate!

If you want a variation, you could substitute 1 tsp. almond flavoring for the vanilla. Or add keep vanilla and add 1/2 tsp. nutmeg and 1 tsp. cinnamon. (Great variation for the holidays.

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tblsp. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 Tblsp. butter

Directions:
Mix until smooth and not too runny.

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