Sugar Cookies

Caroline’s Sugar Cookies 1975

Grandma Mae Hartwig

Cream together 1 cup white sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter or oleo

1 cup wesson oil

Add 2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla

4 1/4 cups flour

Dip bottom of glass in sugar to flatten cookies.

Bake 350 til done. 8-10 minutes

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Sugar cookies have always been a beloved treat to bake growing up. Though the ones my mom would make were cut-out cookies, and she always added a little almond extract to the batter and topped them with a simple powdered sugar and milk icing.

My daughter Daisy and I made this recipe to see how they turned out compared to the classic Lori style. After mixing the batter, we decided it was very soft, so we chilled it in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling it into balls. We found that small teaspoon sized balls worked best based on the size of the glass we used. The cookies did spread a little while baking, so be sure to give them space on the pan. They took closer to 10-12 minutes to get done in our oven versus the suggested 8-10. We made half a batch and ended up with 32 cookies, so with a full batch you would expect to have about 64. The result was a sweet delicate cookie that my kids loved. 

My mom Lori told me she remembers baking these with her mom June. She said they had little glass stamper with a design on it for pressing the cookies, and sometimes would use the bottom of a jelly jar with a similar design.

We decided if we baked them again, we would add Grandma Lori’s classic almond extract, because that flavor really takes sugar cookies up a notch. And instead of the fine sugar we used for the topping, we would dip the dough balls in colorful jimmy sprinkles or possibly a coarse colorful sugar before baking for an added texture and color. I’d bet that a good gluten free flour mix could work well for these cookies as they already have a very delicate texture.