Soft Sugar Cookies-The Quest Continues

My husband arrived home last night after a week away on business in the midst of the worst snow storm of the season.  He was scheduled to arrive on a late evening flight into Denver International Airport and I was his ride home. 

I live in the Rocky Mountains so I knew the the drive down the pass was going to be a real nail bitter.  I left home at 7 PM for my husbands 9 PM flight. It's a good thing I did!  The snow was blowing sideways creating 2 foot drifts across the road, the ground was a sheet of ice, not to mention, extremely poor visibility! 

I tuned the radio to the weather station just as the report was being delivered. The announcer said, "There's a chain law in effect for all high profile vehicles for highway 285 corridor!  Be advised that the worst of the storm is located between Morrison Road and Bailey Colorado.  We advise all motorists not to drive, if at all possible!"  

It was not comforting to know I was headed right smack dab between the two locations mentioned and I didn't have a choice "not to drive" if my husband was going to make it home from the airport.   So, I said a little prayer and headed down the pass.

The good news... I'm an excellent driver and my Acura MDX is the bomb in the snow!  I made it to the airport just in time to greet my husband, white knuckles and all!  The snow had stopped falling for the ride home and we pulled into the driveway about midnight!  Whew!


After our icy ordeal last night, my husband opted to take my car to work this morning leaving me stranded at home. You see, his car is front wheel drive and a disaster in the snow.  Being stranded at home isn't  a bad thing. However, my husband requested that I bake him some sugar cookies today and I have no butter or milk in the house!  

You were thinking I wasn't going to get to the recipe, right?  Here's where it all ties together.  

I've decided not to let this unfortunate turn of events, keep me from my quest to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe for my...

Despite my lack of ingredients, I decided to forge ahead with what I had in the refrigerator. The recipe is from a web site call Group Recipes.





I'm searching for a "soft" sugar cookie recipe so I decided to experimented with the size, shape and thickness of the dough to see if it would make a difference in the texture of the cookie.

The pressed cookie was formed from a tablespoon of batter rolled into a ball and gently press down with my fingers before baking. The balls were also formed by using a tablespoon of dough but left on the baking sheet in ball form. I also rolled some dough to ¼ inch thickness and used a cookie cutter to form shapes. The cooking time varied from 18 minutes for the ball cookies, to 8 minutes for the rolled cookies.

I'm please to say that you don't have to have exactly what a recipe calls for to achieve a great end result. The pressed cookies were soft with just a little crunch on the bottom and edges; just how I like them! The ball cookies were soft and puffy in the middle with a delicate moist texture. Surprisingly, the cutouts, although crisp, turned out light and tender with amazing flavor.

I'll note my substitutions to the original recipe in red.Ingredients

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¾ Cup butter flavored shortening
sub: ¾ cup non flavored Crisco shortening
1 Cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon milk
sub: 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ Cups all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
added: 1 Tablespoon Buttermilk Powder to enhance/replace butter flavor

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In a large bowl, cream together: shortening and white sugar until smooth

Beat in eggs one at a time

Stir in milk and vanilla

Combine with flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. (sift dry ingredients for best result)

Cover & chill for at least an hour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I reduced heat to 350 on convection oven setting

Lightly grease cookie sheet or use parchment paper

Roll out dough to ¼ thickness on lightly floured surface

Cut desired shapes

Place cookies about 1 ½ inches apart on cookie sheet

Bake 6 to 8 minutes - do not wait for them to brown ... take them out with a very slight browning underneath or no brown at all

Let cookies rest on cookie sheet for 2 minutes

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Soft Sugar Cookies and Louisiana Pecan Balls

Icing

This may very well be the perfect Sugar Cookie Recipe!!