Classic Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Submitted by Park Rangerette

"Handed down from my great-grandmother Ferdig, this classic sugar cookie recipe is rich in flavor and can be cut thick for softer cookies or rolled paper-thin for crispy cookies. They freeze very well and I've never found a recipe I like better ... but then I am a little biased. Prep time does not include time to chill cookie dough."

 

• Ready In: 18mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 2 dozen
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

directions

1. Combine baking soda, cream of tartar and flour mixing well. With your hands, knead in softened butter.
2. In a small bowl, beat eggs and mix well with sugar and vanilla.
3. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture and again using your hands, mix this really well.
4. Chill dough. It will be quite hard when it is completely chilled. Using a table knife, cut off chunks to roll out on a well-flour surface to desired thickness - thin cookies will get crispy when baked, thicker cookies will puff and stay soft. Cut into desired shapes.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the edges begin to brown; be careful not to overcook if you want them to stay soft after cooling!
6. After completely cooled, decorate the cookies. These will freeze really well!

Reviews

[justcallmetoni]

Holiday baking time and what would an assortment of baked goodies be without a classic sugar cookie. I chose this particular recipe because it does freeze well and I tend to make all my doughs ahead of time and bake everything during one week. I baked two cookies for review purposes and made the pillowy variety. They were simply divine, not too sweet with a melt in your mouth, velvety texture. On results this recipe is more than 5 stars. My quibble here is the dough is so tender, it was very hard to work with and stuck much more to the pin than other cookies I've tried. It requires a good amount of patience and knowing that your efforts will be rewarded with great results.