Every family has its iconic recipes. Grandma's lasagna, Great Grandma's noodles & gravy, whatever the case may be: they become part of a family legacy, handed down to new generations, wrapped up in years' worth of wonderful memories. For me, this is one of those recipes. It was a true rite of passage for me when I could make sugar cookies just like my mom. This is another cookie that she always made at Christmastime, and every year, it just doesn't feel like December until I've had some homemade fudge and a sugar cookie. Year after year, my sisters and I got to help with rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies with the cookie cutters, and decorating enough sugar cookies to feed the neighborhood. My mom, shuffling cookie sheets in and out of the oven. My sisters and I, arguing over the placement of the cookie cutters and sneaking bites of dough when my mom wasn't looking. (My dad, watching basketball.) And it's not just a matter of nostalgia; these are the best sugar cookies in existence. They are light, soft, and fluffy. And depending on what cookie cutters you own, there's absolutely no reason to wait until Christmas to make some. Case in point: I adore making these for Easter.
Delicious, bright, and festive. Simple and fun to make.
Sugar Cookies
From: My mom's sister's husband's mom... so, my aunt's mother-in-law, Mom Meyers
Yield: 80-100 cookies. This is not an exaggeration! Pictures above are of a half-recipe and there were 47 cookies. This is dependent on (a) the size of your cookie cutters and (b) how much dough never makes it to the oven...
You'll need:
2 c sugar
1 c shortening
2 eggs
1 c milk
1 tsp vanillla
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
5 c flour, plus LOTS more for rolling out the dough
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the shortening and sugar.
It always makes me think of snow.
Beat in the eggs, milk, and vanilla.
Gradually add in all the dry ingredients, adding more flour if needed.
I usually end up adding more flour - at least half a cup more for a full recipe. It's one of those "you know when it looks and feels right" things. The dough should be stiff but sticky. Err on the side of not adding enough flour; you can always add more, and plenty more will get mixed in as you roll out the dough.
Put a big hunk of the dough (about 1/4 recipe) on a VERY WELL FLOURED surface.
Flour the top of the dough and your rolling pin, and gently roll it out to about 1/4" thickness or slightly thinner, always working outward from the center of the dough.
You'll know if you didn't add enough flour, because your dough will stick to everything. Flour your cookie cutters if you're using metal, and start cutting cookies. Use the dough as efficiently as possible, because every time you collect the scraps and roll them out again, you're adding more and more flour, and you can only do that so many times before the texture gets funny.
Put your cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake one sheet at a time. How long you bake them is entirely dependent on the thickness and the size. If you have a mixture of small and large cookie cutters, put all large or all small on one cookie sheet and adjust your baking time. I rolled the dough to about 3/16"and used fairly large cookie cutters, and my cookies were done in 6 minutes. You'll know they're done when they look like this:
The tops are completely dry and the bottom edges are just turning golden brown. Doesn't that just make your mouth water? Don't over-bake them! The best part about these cookies is how soft they are; drying them out in the oven would be a crime. Remove them immediately to wire racks to cool.
Collect up all your scraps - and - EAT A BITE OF THE DOUGH. My mom would be scolding you about the dangers of eating raw cookie dough and food poisoning. However, I, who have never had food poisoning, have no qualms at all about telling you to eat some. This is the best raw cookie dough I've ever had, including chocolate chip. I usually end up dancing around my kitchen because it is just that good. But where were we?
Collect up all your scraps, grab another hunk of dough, smash them together with your hands, re-flour EVERYTHING, and do it all over again. Yes, it's a bit time-consuming, but if you're good at multi-tasking you can be filling one cookie sheet while the other is baking. Or - even better - you make these with your spouse, friends, or children, and split up the jobs. Roll up the scraps and cut, roll up the scraps and cut, roll up the scraps and cut, until you can't get any more cookies out of it.
Eat the rest of the dough.
When everything is baked and cooled, it's time to decorate. Some sugar cookies are loaded up with thick, heavy icing. However, all we ever put on these is a very, very simple glaze: powdered (confectioner's) sugar, water, and food coloring. (And sprinkles, just for fun.) If you have worked with powdered sugar before, you'll notice that it doesn't take much liquid to soak up about a cup of powdered sugar, so when you're mixing your icing, add the water - literally - a few drops at a time, or else you'll find yourself adding another cup of sugar to the bowl. (I do it every time.) Make it just stiff enough that it doesn't run off the cookies, and go to town.
From: My mom's sister's husband's mom... so, my aunt's mother-in-law, Mom Meyers
Yield: 80-100 cookies. This is not an exaggeration! Pictures above are of a half-recipe and there were 47 cookies. This is dependent on (a) the size of your cookie cutters and (b) how much dough never makes it to the oven...
You'll need:
2 c sugar
1 c shortening
2 eggs
1 c milk
1 tsp vanillla
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
5 c flour, plus LOTS more for rolling out the dough
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the shortening and sugar.
It always makes me think of snow.
Beat in the eggs, milk, and vanilla.
Gradually add in all the dry ingredients, adding more flour if needed.
I usually end up adding more flour - at least half a cup more for a full recipe. It's one of those "you know when it looks and feels right" things. The dough should be stiff but sticky. Err on the side of not adding enough flour; you can always add more, and plenty more will get mixed in as you roll out the dough.
Put a big hunk of the dough (about 1/4 recipe) on a VERY WELL FLOURED surface.
Flour the top of the dough and your rolling pin, and gently roll it out to about 1/4" thickness or slightly thinner, always working outward from the center of the dough.
You'll know if you didn't add enough flour, because your dough will stick to everything. Flour your cookie cutters if you're using metal, and start cutting cookies. Use the dough as efficiently as possible, because every time you collect the scraps and roll them out again, you're adding more and more flour, and you can only do that so many times before the texture gets funny.
Put your cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake one sheet at a time. How long you bake them is entirely dependent on the thickness and the size. If you have a mixture of small and large cookie cutters, put all large or all small on one cookie sheet and adjust your baking time. I rolled the dough to about 3/16"and used fairly large cookie cutters, and my cookies were done in 6 minutes. You'll know they're done when they look like this:
The tops are completely dry and the bottom edges are just turning golden brown. Doesn't that just make your mouth water? Don't over-bake them! The best part about these cookies is how soft they are; drying them out in the oven would be a crime. Remove them immediately to wire racks to cool.
Collect up all your scraps - and - EAT A BITE OF THE DOUGH. My mom would be scolding you about the dangers of eating raw cookie dough and food poisoning. However, I, who have never had food poisoning, have no qualms at all about telling you to eat some. This is the best raw cookie dough I've ever had, including chocolate chip. I usually end up dancing around my kitchen because it is just that good. But where were we?
Collect up all your scraps, grab another hunk of dough, smash them together with your hands, re-flour EVERYTHING, and do it all over again. Yes, it's a bit time-consuming, but if you're good at multi-tasking you can be filling one cookie sheet while the other is baking. Or - even better - you make these with your spouse, friends, or children, and split up the jobs. Roll up the scraps and cut, roll up the scraps and cut, roll up the scraps and cut, until you can't get any more cookies out of it.
Eat the rest of the dough.
When everything is baked and cooled, it's time to decorate. Some sugar cookies are loaded up with thick, heavy icing. However, all we ever put on these is a very, very simple glaze: powdered (confectioner's) sugar, water, and food coloring. (And sprinkles, just for fun.) If you have worked with powdered sugar before, you'll notice that it doesn't take much liquid to soak up about a cup of powdered sugar, so when you're mixing your icing, add the water - literally - a few drops at a time, or else you'll find yourself adding another cup of sugar to the bowl. (I do it every time.) Make it just stiff enough that it doesn't run off the cookies, and go to town.
Let the icing harden for a few hours before you pack them up. Put wax paper between the layers. These cookies stay soft and fresh for a very long time, which is a good thing since there will be so many.
These are fun to cut out, fun to decorate, and even more fun to eat. I'm now teaching my own daughters how to ideally place cookie cutters and making sure they don't eat too much of the dough. I hope this recipe is something special for your family. And have a wonderful, happy, blessed Easter!
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