Favorite sugar/butter cookie recipe?

Francl27

I'd ask for healthy, but, well... yeah.

Promised my kids we'd make Halloween cookies tomorrow so I need a recipe!

AmigaMaria001

Chewy Sugar Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen
The final dough will be slightly softer than most cookie dough. For best results, handle the dough as briefly and gently as possible when shaping the cookies.
Overworking the dough will result in flatter cookies
Give the cookies plenty of space on the cookie sheet to spread - because they will!


2 ¼ C AP flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp table salt
1 ½ C (10 1/2 oz) sugar, plus ⅓ C for rolling
2 oz cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
6 TBS butter, melted and still warm
⅓ C vegetable oil
1 Lg egg
1 TBS milk
1 TBS almond extract

INSTRUCTIONS
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°
Line 2 Lg rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper

1. Place ⅓ C sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl
3. Set aside
4. Place 1½ C sugar and cream cheese in Lg bowl
5. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later)
6. Whisk in oil until incorporated
7. Add egg, milk, and almond extract; continue to whisk until smooth
8. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms
9. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 TBS each (or use #40 portion scoop - this is a very small scoop because the cookies spread a lot)
10. Using your hands, roll dough into balls
11. Working in batches, roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of room for them to spread out because they will spread quite a bit
12. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter
13. Sprinkle tops evenly with sugar (Turbinado sugar is a good choice but, use regular granulated sugar if that's what you have)
14. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown very slightly, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes (If you bake too longer they will be a crispy cookie - if you under bake slightly they will be very chewy - your choice!)
15. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes
16. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature


TECHNIQUE
DYNAMIC DUO: BAKING POWDER + BAKING SODA
Many cookie recipes, including our Chewy Sugar Cookies, contain both baking soda and baking powder Since each is a leavening agent, why do you need both? The answer is that the two work in tandem to create cookies that not only rise—but spread—to the right degree Plus in our recipe, baking soda has one more purely aesthetic effect: It creates cookies with an appealingly crackly top
Baking powder is responsible for lift, since it is engineered to produce most of its gas after the cookies go into the oven, where the dough sets before these bubbles can burst
But too much lift can mean cookies that turn out humped Here’s where baking soda comes in: As long as there’s an acidic ingredient in the dough for it to react with, a small amount of baking soda can even things out Baking soda raises the pH of dough (baking powder does too, but not as high), weakening gluten Weaker gluten means less structure and cookies that spread Goodbye, humped shapes
As for crackly tops, baking soda reacts immediately in the wet dough to produce Lg bubbles of carbon dioxide that can’t all be contained by the weakened dough Before the cookies can set in the oven, the bubbles rise to the top and burst, leaving fissures in their wake
The bottom line: For a baker who likes her cookies just so, the use of both baking powder and baking soda can be a potent combo

Powder, No Soda
With only baking powder in the mix, our cookies bake up humped with less crackly tops

Powder + Soda
Both leaveners in the dough lead to cookies that are perfectly mounded and nicely crackly
TECHNIQUE
SECRET WEAPONS FOR TASTE AND TEXTURE
Sugar cookies can be cloyingly sweet, and even those billing themselves as chewy rarely are These two ingredients helped us create the best flavor and chewy texture

CREAM CHEESE
Cream cheese is an ingredient not often included in sugar cookies But we found it helps cut their one-note sweetness and round out flavors

OIL
All-butter sugar cookies may have rich taste, but they never boast real chew Swapping some of the butter, which is mainly a saturated fat, for unsaturated vegetable oil boosts chewiness considerably Why? The two types of fat create a sturdier structure that requires more force to bite through

sistrsprkl

This is my go-to:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Rolled-Sugar-Cookies/

Francl27

This is my go-to:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Rolled-Sugar-Cookies/

Ok thanks I'm trying these... nice and easy, lol!