TASTY TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 – NATIONAL SUGAR COOKIE DAY
National Sugar Cookie Day is coming up on Friday, July 9th! You’ve heard me talk about how important memories from the kitchen are to life . . . my Grandma’s sugar cookies are just one of those memories that every time I make (or eat) them I am filled with the love and memories of my grandma making them on the kitchen table, with no mixer and no measuring tools and me standing beside her with my elbows on the table asking her a million questions. The most important is “Are they done yet?” She never had many answers – she cooked and baked by feel, touch, smell, and taste. So, one day when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I decided in order to get her recipe I’d have to figure it out myself! From watching. AND I DID! And this recipe is the result of my watching and trying to measure myself – then when she wasn’t with us to make them for us, I used the recipe I developed from watching her and adapted it to meet our taste expectations for Grandma’s Sugar Cookies! AHHHH LOVE THOSE MEMORIES! (and YES, of course, the taste.)
GRANDMA’S SUGAR COOKIES
Ingredients
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups butter or margarine, soft
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs, room temperature
Enough flour to make a real thick batter (usually it is about 6 ½ cups all-purpose flour – I say usually because flours differ from the amount of moisture in the grains of wheat and whatever else makes the difference in the moisture content of flour. I start with 5-6 cups and mix as I add. If the texture of the dough is too moist, add a little more, just try to not add so much the cookies are dry. Dry sugar cookies are not so tasty.)
4 heaping teaspoons baking powder – HERE YOU MUST USE A TEASPOON YOU’D USE FOR STIRRING TEA OR HOT CHOCOLATE, A TABLE TEASPOON NOT A MEASURING TEASPOON. (Remember I said grandma never used a measuring tool. I’ve never tried to figure it out. I just find it another great memory, and it works every time, to use a table teaspoon and heap it 4 times for the baking powder.)
2 teaspoons vanilla
Dash nutmeg
(Grandma never added salt – I add a little salt if the butter is not salted especially but it isn’t necessary.)
Instructions
- Mix together – use a mixer or a spoon or spatula – grandma used a spoon. Mix the sugar and butter or margarine. When mixed well and light, add the milk slowly and the eggs. Mix to combine well.
- Then add the flour and baking powder slowly – along with any salt you add (be careful to not add too much salt), and the nutmeg (that is optional actually, but Grandma always added.)
- When the cookie dough is the right texture/consistency to roll – move to a lightly floured surface. If it isn’t quite thick enough combine on the board with a little flour until it is right. Grandma used our kitchen table.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and roll dough (I roll 1/3 at a time depending on the amount of room I have to roll) and dip either a glass (grandma used a drinking glass) or cookie cutters in sugar or flour to keep from sticking) and cut out the cookies.
- I like to dust the cookies with granulated sugar but you can use sprinkles or wait and frost them after they cool from the oven.
- Bake at 350 degrees F oven on non-greased cookie sheets just until done. I bake about 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of the cookies. I usually roll dough to about 1/8-1/4” – just do not burn the cookies. They are too good to burn!
I almost ALWAYS have some sugar cookies in the cookie jar! Please enjoy!
Bon Appetite’ with Love,
To download this recipe, click here.