12 Days of Cookies – The Great Sugar Cookie Debate
Sugar cookies are the classic holiday cookie. Everyone seems to have a great sugar cookie recipe. I personally only have the patience for sugar cookies at the holidays. Even though I have about 40 cookie cutters, they barely ever get used. Occasionally I’ll use them for things other than cookies (like cake or bars).
I think it’s because I don’t have a great sugar cookie recipe. Don’t get me wrong I love the recipe that came from my Aunt. The problem is that it poofs so sometimes the cookies lose their shape. They don’t have crisp edges like some sugar cookies. So I decided to test three sugar cookie recipes to come up with a favorite.
The first recipe will be my Aunt’s recipe that I grew up eating. I’ll use it as a baseline to compare the other recipes to. Second, I’ll be trying a Dorie Greenspan recipe. Funny thing is that both Cookie Carnival AND Tuesdays with Dorie are doing Dorie’s sugar cookies this month! The last recipe comes from Ashlee’s blog (and Katie uses this recipe too). Her cookies always look perfect.
I decided that we needed to come up with a way to use up all of these cookies. Our friends offered to host a cookie decorating party. I brought the naked cookies and all my decorating supplies and they provided snacks and beverages.
These are pictures of some of the cookies we brought home with us. It was a lot of fun to decorate cookies with a group of friends.
One cookie cutter that I have never really liked is the Santa cookie cutter. My mom had one growing up and the only way it looks like a Santa is if you decorate it properly. I don’t think I’ll use the cookie cutter anymore. We did have fun trying to decorate the shape into things other than Santa. Hubby made a convincing bird and another friend made a cute penguin mother and baby. Here’s a pic of my Santa and hubby’s bird.
I was trying to be organized while I was baking, so I went ahead and measured everything out at the beginning including labeling each measured ingredient with post it notes. It turned out to be very useful when I started mixing the dough.
So now on to the verdict. Is it possible that one of these new recipes is going to replace my go to sugar cookie recipe? The recipe I grew up loving turned out soft and a little puffy as expected. It’s also somewhat difficult to work with because you have to work quite a bit of flour into the dough prior to rolling it out. Dorie’s recipe held it’s shape well and the batch was small, which was refreshing. It was also very easy to roll out and work with. Ashlee’s recipe had a nice hint of lemon. I enjoyed the lemon when they weren’t frosted but I thought it was a big overpowering when they were frosted. These also help their shape quite well and again were easy to work with. So I would definitely make any of these recipes again. I guess it would depend what I was looking for.
For super soft roll out cookies – I’d make my aunt’s recipe.
For cookies that hold their shape really well – I’d make Ashlee’s recipe.
For a simpler sugar cookie that yields a smaller batch – I’d make Dorie’s recipe.
And now on to the recipes.
Sugar Cookies – from my Aunt Deanne – I got 5.5 dozen cookies
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup lard
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
sour milk (1 cup milk mixed with 1 tsp. vinegar and 1 tsp. baking soda.)
In a large bowl, mix sugar with eggs. Add lard, baking powder,
vanilla, milk, and flour. Mix each ingredient one at a time to the
other. Roll out and use cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.
Watch closely, top does not brown only bottom.
Sugar Cookies – from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my Home to Yours – to see the entire recipe, check out the TWD member who chose it, Ulrike of Küchenlatein – I got 2.5 dozen cookies
As you can see the Dorie recipe made a very small amount of dough. This is nice though because sometimes making sugar cookies is overwhelming. Also, I didn’t rechill my dough between rolling it out. I just rerolled and went with it.
Sugar Cookies – from Katie, originally from Ashlee – I got 5.5 dozen cookies
1 1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp lemon zest
5 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Powdered sugar, for rolling
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.
Frosting
1 stick of butter, softened
1/4 cup Crisco
6 cups powdered sugar
Water or Milk to reach desired consistency
Food coloring
Beat butter and Crisco until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar slowly. Add water/milk (I used whipping cream) until desired consistency is reached.
My 12 Days of Cookies:Day 1: Lumberjacks
Day 2: Peppermint Sandies
I’m submitting this to Food Bloggas Eat Christmas Cookies blogging event. Check this link to participate in the event. Or check here to see the roundup (gets updated as entries come in).
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I love the red swirl in these. They look so festive! Homemade marshmallows are seriously so much better than store-bought.
Completely agree Megan. And the best part is they melt and get all gooey in the hot chocolate!
gorgeous! and so festive. what a great idea.
These are awesome! I’m sure your friends and family will love this thoughtful gift!
these are the prettiest marshmellows I have ever seen. you could make them for every winter season (throw some sparkles in for news years, green for st pattys. pastels for easter!) oh the possibilities.
So pretty! I hear people talk about how easy it is to make homemade marshmallows all of the time – I’ve really got to make some.
Peppermint marshmallows? I think this is the first time I am hearing about it. Anyway it sounds fun and looks yummy.
Looks great!
I bought all the ingredients for marshmallows but haven’t made them yet.. this peppermint variety sounds awesome though!
I really need to get off my butt and make some homemade marshmallows! No excuses!
-Amanda
These are so darned pretty, and festive! Happy holidays!
holy clever. these look so yummy.
Those look so professional. It’s amazing what a little red food coloring can do.
These are beautiful! I have made marshmallows a few times, and only once have I had a problem with them.. I put them into an airtight container and came back about an hour later to find that they had been – at least what it looked like to me – weeping. I’m not sure what happened, I dusted them with powdered sugar after cutting, and thought I did everyting right. I was curious if anything like that has that happened to you before? These marshmallows look like perfection!
those would be great in a cup of hot cocoa!
Jen…these are GORGEOUS!! I keep meaning to try my hand at marshmallow making. These look divine!
Caroline,
I have never had that problem myself. It sounds like there may have been a lot of humidity in the air? Was it during the summer? I haven’t made marshmallows during the summer yet, but that’s the first thing that pops to mind.
I found your site from Pioneer Woman’s Group 3 photography assignment. Congrats on being selected!!
I love the photo and am looking forward to trying your marshmallow recipe.
I’m looking forward to looking at your other posts, too. 😉
Stef at TooMuchToDoSoLittleTime.com
Where can one buy a marshmellow make/machine??
I cannot wait to make these peppermint marshmallows at the holidays. They are so pretty and looks so nice in that hot chocolate!
Your pictures look soooo amazing 🙂 I did a blog recently about marshmallows (If you are interested – http://joandsue.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-marshmallow-debate.html ) Homemade marshmallows are rediculously addictive!
Important pre-holiday question: how big are the gift bags you use for your marshmallows &/or hot cocoa mix? I’m looking at the “smalls” from KA (14.5″ x 6″), but I really have zero intuition for how that size translates to volume of, e.g, marshmallows. =) thanks!
beantownbaker — November 8th, 2011 @ 8:26 am
Great question. I will have to go home and check the size of the bags. I know I got them at Michaels. The marshmallows went into small bags that were almost a smidge too small and the hot cocoa went into larger bags. I’m sure that isn’t very helpful… Let me get back to you on that.
beantownbaker — December 19th, 2011 @ 9:00 pm
Ok I didn’t have any of the bags left. Both of them were Wilton brand from Michaels craft store. Based on what I see online, it looks like the marshmallows were in a bag that was 3″x4″. They were a smidge small. The cocoa mix was in a bigger bag, looks like 4″x6″ and those were just the right size.
I’m not sure what I did wrong but these were a total disaster! The marshmallow wouldn’t pour out of the bowl and seemed like it had already begun to set by the time I was taking it out (even though I only kept it in the mixer for about 13 minutes). Do you think they were in the mixer for too long? I was going by timing as well as thick/lukewarm but maybe it was still too long. The bit of them that I could get into the pan wouldn’t spread so I couldn’t even use what I had because they would have been horribly shaped and not gift-worthy. I ended up having to just dump everything in the trash. I’m so disappointed because I was really looking forward to an easy homemade gift for co-workers.
beantownbaker — December 19th, 2011 @ 8:59 pm
So sorry to hear that they didn’t turn out for you 🙁
LadyPerson — January 1st, 2012 @ 12:58 am
You probably cooked the sugar syrup too long. I bet if you’d let them fully set, you’d have ended up with harder than normal marshmallows. Check your candy thermometer to make sure it’s accurate.
Sounds like you didn’t cook the sugar syrup long enough. They MUST get to the proper temperature, or the marshmallows won’t set properly. If the syrup didn’t cook enough, the resulting marshmallow will be too soft and won’t hold it’s shape properly. Cook it too long, and the marshmallows will be too hard when you want fluffy.
Jenny K., Colorado — November 29th, 2012 @ 3:04 pm
I would like to add that when cooking candy to a certain temperature, you must take into account your altitude. I have not made these yet, but will adjust to my own 6,000 feet in altitude. For example, when making English Toffee, I adjust 8 degrees LOWER for the target temperature. Otherwise, it overcooks.You can Google “altitude adjustments for candy making” .
Would a hand mixer work or would the marshmallows burn out the motor?
beantownbaker — December 1st, 2012 @ 9:38 pm
I’ve never done it with a hand mixer, but I do know that my stand mixer gets pretty hot while it’s whipping up the marshmallows…
Mary Christmas — December 21st, 2012 @ 2:08 pm
I made these last night with a simple handmixer & whisk attachment (Hamilton Beach® 6-Speed Hand Mixer)…worked great! It has a “bowl rest” so your arm doesn’t get too tired 🙂
beantownbaker — December 21st, 2012 @ 9:12 pm
So glad it worked out for you!
Anyone know if an alternative syrup would work (like light brown rice syrup)? I want to make these but my son is allergic to corn. Thanks!
beantownbaker — December 15th, 2012 @ 9:40 am
I have never tried a substitute. Maybe another reader will know. If you experiment and find something that works, let me know!
Delicious, and they look just like the picture!!
To save your pan, lay down foil first, and then spray with cooking spray and the powder mixture as instructed. At the end, lift the foil out to dump the marshmallows on the cutting board.
beantownbaker — December 21st, 2012 @ 9:11 pm
Great tip!