Friday, October 22, 2010

The Truth and Halloween Sugar Cookies

It has come to my attention that some people think that I'm some kind of super-mom when it comes to cooking. I have to be honest with you: I'm not. I love to cook and yes, I do it often. But I'm also a mother of four, room mom for my kindergartner's class and Volunteer site coordinator for a produce Co-op. Add that to church callings, family drama, laundry, dishes, potty training, dance practice, and a huge garden... well, let's just say I don't always get a "proper" dinner to the table. In fact, to lower the bar even further... I may as well admit to you that yes, I have on rare occasions fed my children cookies, goldfish and a vitamin supplement for dinner. And my family can verify that on days like that, well... you just don't question it. Actually it's best to avoid confrontation at all. Eat your cookies and GO TO BED!

That said, hopefully I can redeem myself just a tiny bit by sharing a delicious cookie recipe with you. And no, we didn't have this for dinner last night! Remember I made some chocolate fudge frosting for Mike's cake that I didn't end up using? Well, I thought it would be criminal to let it go to waste so I dyed it black and made Halloween cookies. YUM. I also made some pink frosting for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I won't tell you what shape those cookies were.... (haha just kidding, they were just circles- can you tell I'm in a "mood" today? maybe we'll be having cookies for dinner tonight...)


No-Fuss Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter (can substitute shortening or do 50/50)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp almond (or vanilla) extract
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, soda, almond and salt. Mix thoroughly. Add flour one cup at a time, stirring to combine.

2. Drop by tablespoon into a bowl of granulated sugar, roll until covered then place onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8-9 minutes for soft cookies. They may look slightly uncooked, but trust me, they will firm up as they cool. If you cook them longer, they will end up being crunchy. Which is fine... if you like that sort of thing.

**If you are planning on frosting your cookies (which, lets all be honest, is the only reason to even eat a sugar cookie...) then skip step 2. Allow to cool completely then frost with your favorite icing or frosting.

***If you want to cut shapes, cover dough tightly and refrigerate for a couple hours before rolling it out. But, since I'm in a mood I'll tell you right now that's the main reason I don't normally make sugar cookies. It's just one more step to fuss with and in my opinion, not necessary. Too bad the kiddos don't agree, right?

The spider is two cookies together with black frosting. I mashed together three mini marshmallows for each of the eyes and dotted them with black frosting.

2 comments:

Veronica Bartles said...

Another thing I sometimes do is form the sugar cookie dough into a log, roll it in colored sugar and wrap in waxed paper. Then I stash it in the fridge or freezer until I need some cookies. Way yummier than the slice & bake cookies you buy in the store, but just as easy and just as impressive :)

Susan R. said...

We made these tonight for FHE and they were super yummy! We rolled part of the batch in cinnamon sugar and had snickerdoodles! Thanks for the yummy recipe!!