I didn't have high expectations for Baked Sunday Mornings this week. Classic Sugar Cookies are on the schedule today, and when I tried the recipe three years ago, I wasn't happy with the result. But hope springs eternal, so I gave the recipe another try.
The recipe is straightforward. You beat softened butter with shortening and sugar until fluffy; add egg and vanilla; and mix in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder). I chilled the dough overnight before rolling it out to a thickness of 3/16 inch and cutting out the cookies. Even after being well chilled, the dough was soft and I found it difficult to transfer the cookies from my work space to a parchment-lined baking sheet without distorting the shapes. I gathered and re-rolled all of the scraps, chilling each slab of rolled-out dough before cutting more cookies. I baked the cookies until they were just beginning to turn golden around the edges.
The royal icing for these cookies is a mixture of egg whites, powdered sugar, and fresh lemon juice. As written, I found the icing to be far too thin to even pipe a decent outline onto the cookies before flooding them, but I was tired and didn't feel like taking the time to add more sugar to properly adjust the consistency. Instead, I just covered the tops of the cookies in an untidy layer of white royal icing, threw on some Christmas sprinkles, and called it a day.
The gentlemen bakers describe this cookie as "chewy," which is accurate. Unfortunately, I prefer a crisper sugar cookie and I think that the cookie's texture and flavor would benefit from more time in the oven; the recipe directs you to take them out before they are browned. I did not care for this cookie any more the second time around. The cookie itself has very little flavor, besides just being sweet (even without icing). My cookies were a fairly basic shape, but the cookies expanded a decent amount during baking and in my two experiences with it, this dough doesn't hold crisp shapes. Even though my decorating skills are terrible, I'm all for beautiful sugar cookies. But I think that above all, a cookie has to taste good. And this one just doesn't cut it for me.
Recipe: "Classic Sugar Cookies" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Rentao Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Previous Post: "A Basic Cookie with Lots of Zest: Tish Boyle's Decorative Cookie Dough," June 30, 2016.
The recipe is straightforward. You beat softened butter with shortening and sugar until fluffy; add egg and vanilla; and mix in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder). I chilled the dough overnight before rolling it out to a thickness of 3/16 inch and cutting out the cookies. Even after being well chilled, the dough was soft and I found it difficult to transfer the cookies from my work space to a parchment-lined baking sheet without distorting the shapes. I gathered and re-rolled all of the scraps, chilling each slab of rolled-out dough before cutting more cookies. I baked the cookies until they were just beginning to turn golden around the edges.
The gentlemen bakers describe this cookie as "chewy," which is accurate. Unfortunately, I prefer a crisper sugar cookie and I think that the cookie's texture and flavor would benefit from more time in the oven; the recipe directs you to take them out before they are browned. I did not care for this cookie any more the second time around. The cookie itself has very little flavor, besides just being sweet (even without icing). My cookies were a fairly basic shape, but the cookies expanded a decent amount during baking and in my two experiences with it, this dough doesn't hold crisp shapes. Even though my decorating skills are terrible, I'm all for beautiful sugar cookies. But I think that above all, a cookie has to taste good. And this one just doesn't cut it for me.
Recipe: "Classic Sugar Cookies" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Rentao Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Previous Post: "A Basic Cookie with Lots of Zest: Tish Boyle's Decorative Cookie Dough," June 30, 2016.
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