claire797
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Posts posted by claire797
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I think I've found the perfect cut-out cookie! These are from King Arthur and they do call for baker's ammonia. If you're interested in sugar cookies, baker's ammonia is worthing having around.
The dough was easy to work with, though I did find it necessary to keep it cold.
I liked these best cooked for 12 minutes, which was the crispest level and which made them crisp all the way through. They were also good baked tender (9 minutes) which resulted in a tender cookie with very crisp edges.
Ka Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs With BA (adapted from KA's book)
1 cup unsalted butter (8 oz)
2 cups confectioner’s sugar (8 oz)
2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or whatever flavoring you want
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baker’s ammonia (optional)
1 large egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons water
3 1/2 cups (14 ¾ ounce) all purpose flour
Cream butter, sugar, and syrup. Beat in flavorings and salt. Dissolve baker’s ammonia in egg/water mixture and stir into batter. Stir in flour. Chill dough. Roll 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick and cut. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 8-12 minutes (depending on size of cookie).
Makes about 4 dozen 2 inch cookies
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Glad you tried it, but sorry they spread. I wish I'd included something in the recipe about chilling the dough. Here's another one which a friend said was her favorite. It has less fat and more flour, so there's not as much spreading.
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
3 cups flour
3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350º. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
Cream butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract. Beat in eggs. By hand, stir in flour mixture, followed by chocolate chips.
Chill dough.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 9-10 minutes. Let cool for about 2 minutes on cookie sheet.
(adapted from Great American Bake Sale)
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Those truffle cookies are excellent, but they are not chewy. They're not exceptionally chocolatey either -- more of a mocha cookie. But they are good.
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Here's one I like.
Chewy Double Chocolate Cookies
1 1/4 cups butter -- softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream together the butter and both sugars. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 9 minutes. Cool.
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Today I made another great sugar cookie from King Arthur -- Vanilla Dream Cookies. This recipe does not have any eggs. The cookies are crunchy and almost airy, thanks to the Baker's Ammonia. Right now, I think these are my favorite.
Vanilla Dream Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baker’s ammonia
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Cream together butter, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat in flour and baker’s ammonia. Batter will be dry and crumbly, but continue beating and it will come together. Shape into gumball size (3/4 oz) balls. Roll tops in coarse sugar. Press down with glass. Bake 20-25 minutes.
Makes about 32 cookies
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I have tried the sugar cookie made with cream and it is my favorite sugar cookie (I have tried dozens). I agree with claire, though, it isn't a good cut out. I tried them that way once.
I'll have to try the baking the cream cookies again soon. It seems as if my oven is running hot these days and things are cooking a little too fast. The cookies didn't taste burnt, but they could have been over-cooked. Based on how the edges looked, they probably were. Another thing is, I was expecting (don't quite know why) a firm, cut-out, textured cookie. So I'll give them another try.
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I think looking at your photos, that your ovens a touch too hot. Your edges are browning too quickly for your center.
I think you are right. I've noticed my oven cooks things a bit quicker than most recipes call for. I'm going to get an oven thermometer just to be safe.
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I’ve eaten my weight in sugar cookies this morning, but it was for a good cause
.Here are a few pictures. I apologize for them not being so good – My camera is old and dodgy.
First off, the Carol Walter cookie recipe posted by Wendy was very good. It was tender, crispy around the edges and the dough was easy to work with. In fact, I was able to cut a flower shape, which was eaten before I could photograph it. I flavored it with vanilla paste. I’d call it an all-around good cookie. It did have a slight taste of egg yolk, but in a pleasant sort of way.
The King Arthur (crunchy sugar) cookie which Steven posted above was excellent. It was crunchy and light all the way through. I left out the vanilla and flavored it with nutmeg and grated lemon zest, a combo I’m starting like in more and more in my advancing age.
Another cookie I made was a cream based cookie. It tasted almost like Carol Walters, but rose more in a way I didn’t appreciate. I was hoping the cookies would be more cut-outs, but they weren’t. The picture wasn't very exciting (unlike these others) so I'm leaving it out.
Finally, I made an Amish recipewhich is similar to Rebecca “Pastry Queen” Rather’s. There are plenty of variations on this one, but the key characteristics are anoil and fat. These came out of the oven higher and more rounded than the King Arthur crunchy ones, but they crisped up into a fat, rounded and crispy cookie. I liked them very, very much.
Now the question is, how do I get rid of all these cookies?
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Wow! Lots of great recipes
I'm going to try the Carol Walter's recipe Wendy posted and the KA cookies posted by Steven. I'll post some pictures.
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I’ve been on a mission to find the ultimate sugar cookie, and with the holidays approaching, Wendy mentioned it might be nice to have a sugar cookie thread. Do you have a recipe you consider the ultimate? What’s your idea of the best sugar cookie.
It’s tricky because cut-out cookies and old fashioned drop sugar cookies are often lumped into the same category. I think they are very different, so my goal is to find both the ultimate cut out and the ultimate old fashioned, big and crunchy sugar cookie.
To start off with, I’m linking to an excellent sugar cookie I made a few weeks ago. It’s flavored with lemon and nutmeg and this version has no vanilla extract. These are crunchy but tender and have a nice old fashioned flavor. At this point, they are probably my favorite.
The second link is to a cut-out cookie recipe I like. This one seems to be the one I revert to and I’m wondering it I can get any better.
As I bake more cookies, I'll post pictures. for now, it might me nice to just start collecting our favorites and say why we like them so much.
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Saucer Sized Sugar Cookies
This is a combination of saw-dust cookies, a Rebecca Rather sugar cookie and an old Amish recipe.
- 1 c oil
- 1 c butter, at room temp
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1 c powdered sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 T vanilla paste
- 4-1/2 c flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets.
Beat oil, butter and both sguars. Beat in eggs and vanilla paste. Stir together dry ingredients, then stir dry ingredients into batter.
Chill dough for an hour. Using a standard size ice cream scoop, drop scoops onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until cookies are golden.
Let cool on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.
Note: You may also make these small. Use a rounded tablespoon of dough and bake 8-10 minutes.
( RG1478 )
- 1 c oil
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Big Sturdy Cookie Bouquet Type Cookies
Someone gave this to me with promises the dough would be easy to work with. It was. These cookies taste pretty good too.
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1 c shortening (butter flavored is good)
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 3 c flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Beat sugar and shortening in a large bowl. Beat in eggs. Mix in remaining ingredients. Form dough into a ball. Roll out and cut. Bake cut-outs at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
( RG1476 )
- 1 c granulated sugar
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Swedish Sourdough Cookies (aka, Lofthouse copycats)
This is a recipe I found while looking for soft, cakey cut-outs. People seem to think they taste like a brand called Lofthouse.
- 1 c butter
- 1 c sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1-1/2 c sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 5 c flour, plus extra for rolling
Beat together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and sour cream.
Mix together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour. Cut out shapes and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Frost and decorate.
( RG1475 )
- 1 c butter
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Sugar Cookies Made With Heavy Cream
These were given to me by a friend who found them on a bb. This is my re-written version, which I have yet to try. Word on the street is, these are good.
- 3/4 c butter, softened
- 1 c sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 c heavy cream
- 2-3/4 c flour, all purpose
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in cream. Stir together flour, soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into cream mixture. Form into balls and flatten or roll and cut.
Bake at 350 8-10 minutes or until done.
( RG1474 )
- 3/4 c butter, softened
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Basic Rolled Sugar Cookies -- Cut Outs
Serves 5.
This is my tried and true cut-out sugar cookie recipe. It's an old Betty Crocker recipe.
- 1-1/2 c powdered sugar
- 1 c butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2-1/2 c flour, all purpose
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
Beat together powdered sugar and butter. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in extracts. Stir together flour, baking soda and cream of tartar and add stir into batter. Chill three hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll to 3/16 inch and cut into shapes. Place on lightly greased (I prefer lined) baking sheets and bake for 7-8 minutes.
( RG1473 )
- 1-1/2 c powdered sugar
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Sawdust Sugar Cookies -- Cut Outs or Circles
Despite their unfortunate name, these cut-out cookies are delicious. They have a crisp, ethereal texture that borders on sandie. This recipe, which seems to turn up in ladies' auxillary and church cookbooks, usually calls for margarine. In fact, I've seen recipes saying "Use margarine for best results" which is why I usually make them with margarine. I made them with butter once, but don't remember them as being any better made with the butter. The dough is softer than a lot of cut-out doughs, so I work with small sections at a time and keep what I'm not working with in the refrigerator. Another trick is to put the soft dough in a zipper bag, roll it out into a circle in the bag, freeze the dough circe (bag and all), then cut away the bag and punch out frozen dough shapes. As you work with the frozen dough, it will soften up.
- 1 c oil
- 1 c margarine or butter
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1 c powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 T vanilla
- 5 c flour
- 1 Tbls. cream of tartar
- 1 Tbls. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Cream together oil, margarine, and both sugars. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine all dry ingredients in separate bowl. Gradually add to sugar mixture. Form 1 inch balls and roll in a bowl of granulated sugar. Flatten cookies with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
To make cut outs, chill dough, roll it out, freeze it and punch from frozen dough.
Keywords: Cookie
( RG1472 )
- 1 c oil
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Big Crispy Sugar Cookies With a Touch of Lemon
Serves 36 as Dessert.
This recipe, which was adapted from a recipe by Helen Witty, really opened my eyes to how good a sugar cookie can be without vanilla extract. It's almost as if the lack of vanilla allows the butter and lemon flavor to shine through. Of course, you can always leave out the lemon and nutmeg and use vanilla instead. If you skip the chilling step, the cookies will spread more. These cookies are pretty crispy -- not cakey in the least.
- 1 c butter, unsalted, room temperature
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1/2 c light brown sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2-1/2 c all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp water, if needed
- Coarse or granulated sugar for coating
Beat butter until soft. Add both sugars and continue beating until fluffy. Beat in yolks, one by one, followed by nutmeg and lemon zest. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt, then stir flour mixture into sugar mixture. Add water if dough seems too dry. Form into a ball and chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a Silpat (or something). I don't recommend greasing, because these cookies do spread.
To make 3 inch cookies, measure out dough by rounded tablespoonfuls. Form dough into balls and roll in coarse sugar. Flatten dough balls to 2 inches diameter. Leave about 3 inches space between cookies.
Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.
Keywords: Cookie
( RG1471 )
- 1 c butter, unsalted, room temperature
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I made the KA Caramelized Sugar Cookies yesterday and they were very interesting. Below is a visual. They reminded me more of crackers than cookies, actually. Very sweet crackers!
Steve, thanks again for pointing out the cookie recipes in the KA book. I have that book, but tend to skip over sugar cookies. Now I'm on a sugar cookie kick
and am having fun trying out all the different variations.
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Kerry, thanks for posting this. I've been following the thread since yesterday. When I first started reading, I was going to suggest the Baker's Ammonia, but then saw that wasn't what you wanted.
Steven, thanks for the recipes! The KA Caramelized Sugar Cookies sound very different. I'm going to try them today
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What did I do wrong? I'm guessing I didn't bake it long enough. Was the substitution of more brown sugar for granulated sugar at fault?
Well, this is coming from a complete pastry hack, so take it as you wish -- but my recipe is all brown sugar and doesn't ooze at all. Sounds like either it was undercooked or there weren't enough eggs. Did you maybe use small eggs?
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made this three days ago exactly as posted (im a stickler whenever i make something the first time). yumms! and i love how simple it is to make. i always kind of hated schlepping out to the grocery to get corn syrup bc i never have it...Pecan Pie3/4 cup butter
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecan pieces
9 inch unbaked pie shell
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large skillet, toast pecans. Remove from skillet.
Add butter to skillet and heat over medium until browned. Reduce heat and stir in brown sugar. Let brown sugar melt a bit and turn off heat. Let cool for about 5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, mix eggs, salt and vanilla. Stir in butter/sugar mixture and pecans. Pour into unbaked pie shell Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
i wil be making this next week again with a cookie bar base to make pecan bars instead of a pie.
its really nice how simplified this recipe is and how nice it turns out. thank you claire.
(also i may add cranberries to the bars, as that sounds like a really nice variation, but i leave that to the last minute. the original recipe is a definite keeper.)
claire, do you know where this recipe comes from?
Melonpan, thanks for making my pie. The recipe is one I've played around with for a long time. It's a combination of a few recipes from old Junior League books, so there is not one specific source. It was my idea to toast the pecans and brown the butter, though I've seen a lot of other people doing the same thing over the past few years, so it's not like it was anything brilliant or super-creative
. It does make a heck of a difference in the end result. -
I just went back and read the intro pages in the book and she says to " lay the cup on wax paper and spoon the flour in it". I didnt do this, I used the dip and sweep method so I think thats why the white chocolate blondies were a tad dry. I'll try another recipe with the authors method.
Yeah, you have to be very precise and follow the directions carefully with this book. That's the lesson I learned from the dry cakes.
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I've baked a lot of recipes from that book -- mostly cookies, cakes and brownies. The first cake I made was a chocolate cake with sour cream. It was kind of dry and disappointing. However, I think I may not have measured my flour carefully enough, which is key in any recipe but even more so with small batch baking.
I kept on baking my way through the book and found many of her recipes actually stellar. I've reviewed a few of them on my blog if you are interested in seeing pictures and reviews.
Baking in small batches does take a bit of getting use to, but once you start doing it, you realize how handy it is to not be stuck with a whole batch of something. At least, if you are a constant non-professional home baker who needs to keep things moving!
Small Batch Chocolate Chip Picture
Small Batch Fudge Brownie Review
Her oatmeal cookies are also very good.
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Oh, and I'll add this......I use my pre-shreds to make a Morning Glory Muffin batter, which is real similar to carrot cake. There is baking soda in my recipe (no walnuts), but I've never seen my carrot shreds turn green........
Maybe it's the brand of carrots I'm using? I wish I knew. It's just too weird.
Thanks for the tip on freezing the carrots. Maybe when I have time, I'll shred a bunch of carrots and throw them in the freezer for a day when I'm in need of a carrot cake.
chewy chocolate cookies
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I was just surfing around today and found this -- a chewy chocolate chip cookie research project. There are some good looking recipes and gorgeous photos here, for all of you chewy fans
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Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes and Photos