60 in 60: Day 2-Sugar Cookies

Today's cookie: Old Fashioned Soft Sugar Cookies

Today's recipe: Found here.

After yesterday's deliciousness, I thought I needed something a bit less chocolaty. It's a sin against nature, I know, but oddly enough there are people that just don't like chocolate. I have all the recipes planned out ahead so I know what to buy for the week, but also because I want to have a bit of variety in this project. There are only so many different kinds of cookies, you know.

Old Fashioned Soft Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 1/2 cup Shortening

2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp Lemon extract

1 cup Buttermilk

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the nutmeg.

In large mixing bowl, beat shortening for 30 seconds until smooth and creamy.

Add sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add in eggs, vanilla extract and lemon extract, beating well.

Add in flour mixture, beating until thoroughly mixed.

So, it was at about this point in the recipe that I had to stop, take a step back, and look at my dough. This did not look like normal cookie dough. I thought that perhaps I had too much flour or too much sugar. Too much dry or not enough wet. My boyfriend, who was taking pictures for me, pointed out to me that I didn't add any buttermilk. I reread the recipe 3 times, once out loud, nowhere in the recipe does it say to add the buttermilk. I took this time to add it in. I'm pretty sure it should be added before you beat in the flour mixture, but that didn't happen here.

The buttermilk stands alone.

This is what the dough is supposed to look like:

Divide mixture in half. Cover with plastic wrap and chill about 3 hours or until it is easy to handle.

More waiting. If ever there's a cookie that I'm going to have to chill overnight, I might just die. Also, you might notice, I think I'm the only person in the world that doesn't buy plastic wrap*, so I ripped a plastic baggie in half and used that as a cover.

To make large cookies, roll the dough 1/2 inch thick.

Cut into rounds with a round 3 inch cookie cutter or glass.

To make small cookies, roll the dough about 3/8 inch thick and cut into smaller rounds, about 2 inches.

These cookies seem to go from one extreme to the other. When I pulled them out of the fridge after 3 hours** the damn dough was too wet. I added flour and more flour, but eventually gave up and just cut the damn things. The cookies weren't all that pretty, but they were cookies, dammit. My favorite one is the tall bear. He makes me smile.

Place cookies 2 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Sprinkle cookies with additional sugar. Use colored sugar, if desired.

Bake cookies in a 375 degree F oven for 10-12 mins.

I managed to burn the first batch (and my tall bear) along with my thumb. It was a sad five minutes of cookie hell in this house.

I'd like to point out that I was unaware that the oven needed cleaning this badly until I took the following picture.

Remove cookies to cool.

These cookies weren't bad at all. I didn't find them as delicious as yesterday's cookies, but I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies at all. My boyfriend really seems to enjoy them. The lemon extract really did the trick, I think. It added a big burst of flavor throughout the cookie. One word of caution though- if you don't like the smell of nutmeg, this cookie is not the one for you. They've been baked completely through for at least ten minutes and I can still smell the nutmeg.

Recipe Yield: n/a

My Yield: 5 dozen cookies, minus a few burnt ones.

I realised today that I'm still 28 recipes short. If you have any cookie recipes for me, please give me an e-mail at coderster@gmail.com or leave the recipe in a comment. I know I need some sugar free cookies somewhere down the line, so those would be helpful. Also, if you have a vastly changed recipe that doesn't even resemble the original anymore (like Heather) I'll take those, too.

*except for practical jokes involving my friend's vehicles

**plus a trip to Wal-Mart to look for cookie cutters. They had none. I could make a muffin that looked like a turkey, but damn if I could cut my cookie like a star.