342: Simple Sugar Cookies

While I browsed the King Arthur Flour website, I came across the recipe for Simple Sugar Cookies. [Edit 2017: I can't find this recipe any longer, but I have a feeling it was revised and was the inspiration for these Sprinkle Cookies.] I had hopes that this would be what I’d love to make – a cookie that emulates the crisp, shaped sugar cookies with colored sugar you get in the containers at the grocery stores.

Does it? Maybe.

The recipe was definitely simple to make. You cream together shortening (which I actually used) and sugar, then add buttermilk (sour milk) and vanilla. I omitted the nutmeg the recipe called for because I knew I wouldn’t like it. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring until a dough comes together. Drop by 2 tablespoons-fulls onto a baking sheet, placing cookies 2 inches apart. Bake 16-18 minutes.

I originally only got 16 cookies, rather than the 18 count I should have gotten, so I rolled my cookie dough into balls to try to measure them against teach other. I couldn’t tell differences, so I got a little nit-picky and weighed my dough. I gleaned a little dough off of most of the cookies, and got my 18 yield. I baked a tiny pan for 16 minutes, and the large pan for 18.

These were supposed to spread out, but they didn’t. I’m wondering if that’s because I rolled the dough into balls instead of dropping it, or if it’s because I used Silpat. It’s possible that I was supposed to flatten out the dough before baking it to get flat cookies.

These were good. They were very soft fresh out of the oven, but they crisped up as they cooled. They were tender and had a simple, straightforward sweet taste. Although my cookies turned out to be round balls, they did taste a lot like the tubs of cookies you can buy in the grocery store. This was great because I really did want some of those cookies now, having seen them in the store, but I didn’t want to buy cookies when I still needed to bake so much.

I really enjoyed these. They were one of the fastest cookies I’ve made, as far as active prep time goes. It didn’t yield a lot, which means that you could make more cookies again soon (which I would have, if I’d had time). I recommend this recipe.