Wednesday, December 28, 2005

As promised below... Sugar Cookies

(From the Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

Cream 1/2 c butter until light & fluffy.
Beat in 3/4 c sugar.
Add 1 egg or 2 egg yolks
and 1/2 tsp vanilla.
Beat thoroughly.
Add 1 Tbs cream or milk.

Sift together
1 1/4 c flour (actually takes more than this, according to mom),
1/4 tsp baking powder,
and 1/4 tsp salt.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture and blend well.

Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before rolling out. When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 375 F. When rolling out, the dough will be really sticky and needs to be handled lightly and kept in the refrigerator when not in use. Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 375 F. Check cookies frequently, as baking time will vary depending on the thickness of the cookies.

Cookies can be beautifully decorated with dyed sugar, cinnamon hearts, sprinkles, and dragees (the little silver cake decorations) - check the baking needs section of the supermarket. Or a simple glaze can be made from confectioners' sugar & milk. For lemon glaze, use lemon juice and a little lemon zest instead of milk, for orange glaze, use orange juice and a little orange zest.

Making the dough takes probably 10-20 minutes. It needs to be chilled for several hours, but you don't have to sit and watch it during that time. Making the cookies themselves can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. My mom used to triple the recipe and make a second kind of dough, as well, and we'd spend an entire afternoon making hundreds and hundreds of cookies. This year, she at least doubled, maybe tripled the recipe, but just this kind of dough, and I made all the cookies. It took me maybe two hours all by myself.

7 Comments:

Blogger bev said...

This is similar to, if not exactly the same as my mother-in-law's recipe that I have. A word of advice to anyone who wants to make these (easy) cookies. Use *real* ingredients. Use real butter, not The Evil Margarine. Use cream instead of milk, even though the recipe says you can substitute. Use a good quality vanilla. If you use the good stuff as ingredients, these are fantastic cookies. Good year 'round! (I have a cookie cutter in the shape of a footprint for summer.)

11:48 AM  
Blogger ms. v. said...

Oh yeah, you can't substitute margarine for this one. Milk seems to work all right, though, but don't use skim. My mom has the footprint cookie cutter, too! She has several dozen cookie cutters, for every season and holiday you can imagine...

12:01 PM  
Blogger dreamlucky said...

I grew up with this recipe -- and really love it! I've been without my trusty Fanny Farmer cookbook and was glad to find this recipe here. btw: The note about using real ingredients is right on the money. Happy baking!

7:50 PM  
Blogger Logan said...

When I go to buy, there are two things I can not forget, buy viagra and sugar.

1:21 PM  
Blogger mewmewmew said...

Oh yeah, you can't substitute margarine for this one. Milk seems to work all right, though, but don't use skim. My mom has the footprint cookie cutter, too! She has several dozen cookie cutters, for every season and holiday you can imagine...



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11:38 AM  
Blogger Elena E said...

You CAN use margarine. I made them hundreds of times with maragrine, and people always thought it was real butter. Just be sure you get real maragrine, not vegetable spread. I do use butter now. Margarine made them softer, butter makes crisper cookies.

1:58 PM  
Blogger Melany Flemmings said...

Oh dear. I liked it. Thanks for the valuable information and insights you have so provided here.

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3:47 AM  

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