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Three Sugar Cookie Recipes

In college, I had a roommate who made the BEST sugar cookies. She’d leave a plate out for the roommates, and it was so hard not to take all of them. I eventually got the recipe from her and have used it ever since (until this year… but more on that later).

What made them so good is the shortening. I NEVER cook with shortening, but this is one exception that is worth it. They are light, and not too sweet. In fact, the dough doesn’t even have a great taste. But the end result is delicious:

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Shortening Sugar Cookies         

  • 3/4 C. shortening(part margarine or butter)
  • 1 C. sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2 C. flour     
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

Mix thoroughly shortening, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  Blend in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover dough; chill at least 1 hr. 

Pre-heat to 400 degrees.

Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake  6-8 mins. Once you think they’re ready, get them out. Don’t give them another minute! Mine are perfect at 7 minutes.

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Okay, so for the second recipe, I decided to try out a new recipe that used butter because I didn’t have shortening on hand, nor did I feel like buying it. So, I found one online here that had good reviews. They are your classic sugar cookies. The dough is delicious and they are pretty sweet. They are good, but nothing out of the ordinary. Also, if you make them too thin, they will dry up. So, cut them thin and bake them for the minimum amount of time.

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INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

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In the middle of rolling all of these cookies out, Ashley and I thought it wasn’t going to make enough, so we thought… hey, why don’t we make another batch of a different recipe? We ended up making 80 cookies Thursday afternoon. We are crazy. But it was fun to test out the different recipes.

For the third recipe, we made those sour cream sugar cookies. They are supposed to taste like the ones at the grocery store with the pink frosting, you know? That kind of was a turn off for me because those always make me feel sick. But I realized, it’s the frosting that I don’t like. The cookie part is actually really soft, fluffy, and not overly sweet. I’ll definitely make these again.

This recipe also has the icing recipe that we used! I have only made traditional buttercream frosting, so this was a fun change! Go easy on the almond extract and remember that it will harden up after a while so don’t be discouraged when the icing seems runny.

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Ingredients

    • 3 1/2 cups flour
    • 1/2 cup butter
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/2 cup sour cream
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1 egg
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 1 (16 ounce) bags powdered sugar ( equivalent of 2 boxes)
    • 1/2 cup butter ( do not use margarine)
    • 1/2 tablespoon almond extract
    • 0.5 (12 ounce) cans evaporated milk
    • food coloring
    • candy sprinkles

Directions

  1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl and set aside.
  2. Cream butter sugar, egg and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes.
  3. Add sour cream and beat well.
  4. Add dry ingredient mix (flour, baking soda, and salt) and blend well.
  5. Roll on floured board to desired thickness. (1/4 inch thick will create thick cookies that will stay moist for up to two weeks).
  6. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.
  7. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 325°F for 12 minutes.
  8. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.
  9. Pour bag of confectioner sugar into bowl.
  10. Whisk the 1 stick butter (melted), 1 tbsp almond extract, and 1/2 can evaporated milk in separate bowl until well mixed.
  11. Slowly blend into the powered sugar a bit at a time until the icing is a good consistency for decorating. Will not take the entire mixture.
  12. Pour icing into smaller bowls and use food coloring to make icing into different colors.
  13. Decorate with icing as desired.
  14. Use remaining butter, almond, evap.milk mixture to freshen up the icing as it hardens over time. Re-heat the mixture in the microwave before adding to the icing. Add to the icing a few drops at a time until the icing becomes spreadable again. You may have to add more food coloring to freshen up the color.
  15. Use sprinkles, candy, and a lot of imagination to decorate cookies.
  16. Lay decorated cookies on wax paper to dry, it will take icing about 2 hours to firm onto cookie but once dry you can store them in an airtight container.

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There you have it! Three Sugar Cookie Recipes! Try them all and see which ones you like the best!

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