The holidays are fantastic. We take turns spending time with our friends and this year, we had a few friends drop by for a little potluck and game night to ring in the New Year’s. Some of you know that I’m in absolutely love with baking. With My Weekly Adventures post, before rambling about recaps and updates, I gave a quick look of some Boxing Day finds and the one I’m most proud of is finally getting the standing mixer. For New Year’s Eve, I put it to the test and after much debate between various recipes, I decided to go with Sugar Cookies. It does sound kind of familiar since I did do Chocolate Sugar Cookies on the baking date with my friend right before Christmas. Except, I’ve been eyeing this recipe in Butter Baked Goods, one of the cookbooks I own.
Here it is!
“Big” Sugar Cookies
(from Butter Baked Goods by Rosie Daykins)
Sprinkled with icing sugar
Makes 24 cookies
Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla
coarse sanding sugar, for sprinkling
2nd batch: With Sliced Almonds
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Onto a large piece of parchment paper, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and oil on medium to high heat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Add the sugar and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time and beat briefly after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat again to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. Turn the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.
6. Use the ice cream scoop to drop 24 equally sized portions of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Use the palm of your hand to press down lightly on the top of each dough portion to flatten slightly, then sprinkle with a little sanding sugar.
7. Baking in the preheated oven for 15 to 17 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges and cracked in the center.
8. Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.
3rd batch: with Dark Chocolate (Lindt 70% Cocao)
Notes:
- I ended up with double the batch (48 cookies) with probably smaller size cookies.
- Replaced vegetable oil with olive oil
- Sprinkled with icing sugar for first batch but then used, sliced almonds, dark chocolate and snowflakes sugar decorations
4th batch: with sugared snowflakes
These sugar cookies were pretty good. There was a good crunchy consistency. I put the batches for 15 minutes in the oven. Suffice to say that the snowflakes was a true experiment and they ended up melting so that isn’t a great idea. The dark chocolate toppings were the big hit and ended the night with most of them eaten. Sugar cookies are a very easy solution. I did these without a sifter and a proper ice cream scoop or parchment paper. My new home needs some improvement in the supplies portion but that is on our shopping list. To be honest, cookies are my go-to whenever I need a quick fix for baking. Preparation is usually quite minimal (unless you need to use cookies cutters which adds a step and maybe some kneading the dough depending on what you make) and the bake time is usually under 20 minutes (unless its biscotti which needs to baking sessions). I love quick solutions. Sometimes life is about enjoying the simple things and sugar cookies definitely fits that category.
On a side note, the promise I made (to my husband and myself) with the new mixer purchase was that it would be the motivation to step back into my favorite activity ever: Baking and work towards improving this year. Consider these sugar cookies to be the first step back in the kitchen. For the record, there should be another recipe up soon for the Baking Through Disney.
How do you like to top your Sugar Cookies? Are you fan of cookies? What type do you like?
Tranquil Dreams 