Mothers Vanilla Sugar Cookies Recipes

VANILLA SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat sugars and vanilla seeds with a mixer on medium speed for 1 minute. Add butter; beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; beat until well combined.
• Using a 2-inch ice cream scoop (3 tablespoons), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing2 inches apart (no more than 4 cookies per sheet).
• Flatten cookies slightly using the palm of your hand; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Lightly brush tops of cookies with water using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with sanding sugar again.
• Bake until light golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks, and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks, and let cool completely.

LEMON VANILLA SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Put the butter, granulated sugar, confectioners' sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches and mix until just combined.
• Scoop the dough with a 2-ounce cookie scoop, filling it fully with the dough. Then shape it into a straight-sided patty (like a hockey puck) that is 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Put the formed cookie on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat to make 7 to 8 more cookies and making sure there is at least 1 inch of space around each cookie on the baking sheet.
• Bake until the cookies have spread out and flattened by about half and the bottoms are lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan once halfway through the cooking time. Let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• Flip your cookies upside down so the flattest side is up. Use the yellow icing to make a thin line around the edge of each cookie. Then make 2 loops around the interior of the yellow border with the white icing and use a toothpick to fill in any gaps between the two colors. Fill in the middle space with the yellow icing and then make a circle with the white directly in the center. Immediately use a scribe or toothpick to lightly drag from the edge of the cookie to the middle to create the segments of your lemon. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
• Let the icing dry and crust over or serve immediately.

GRANDMA SHEETS' SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Mix together the sugar, shortening, baking powder and ground nutmeg. Beat the eggs and add to mixture. Combine the milk and baking soda and pour into mixture. Add the flour. You can start out with a good mixer at first but you'll need to switch to hand-mixing when dough gets too thick, adding enough flour so the dough is not too sticky and you can roll it out to about 1/4 inch or so.
• Flour counter and rolling pin and top of dough. If it is very humid where you live it may help to refrigerate dough 15 minutes or so and you can also refrigerate the portion of the dough that you're not presently working with. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch. Cut out with any cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet.
• Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for about 8 minutes, or until ever so lightly browned around edges or on bottom. Remove from sheets and cool on flattened grocery bags or wire racks.

MOM'S SOFT SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and nutmeg. In another bowl, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and eggs. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add sour cream and dissolved baking soda to creamed mixture. Gradually beat in flour mixture (dough will be sticky). Refrigerate, covered, overnight., Preheat oven to 350°. Working with one-third of the batch at a time, roll dough on a well-floured surface to 1/4-in. thickness. (Cover and refrigerate remaining dough until ready to roll.) Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. round or other shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. If desired, sprinkle tops with sugar and top with walnuts., Bake 8-10 minutes or until cookies are set but not browned. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

MARY'S SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and stir in the vanilla and almond extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; blend into the creamed mixture. Cover and chill for at least two hours.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the dough into two parts. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of the dough out to 3/16 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets. Sprinkle cookies with plain or colored granulated sugar.
• Bake for 8 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

VINEGAR SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vinegar and vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. , Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Flatten to 1/4-in. thickness; sprinkle with colored sugar., Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute before removing from pans to wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

MOTHER'S VANILLA SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream together butter, shortening, sugars and vanilla, using low speed of electric mixer.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time.
• Sift together dry ingredients and beat in slowly.
• Divide mixture into at least four parts and wrap each in waxed paper.
• Chill till firm.
• Working with one part of dough at a time, roll out on lightly floured board, no thinner than 1/8th inch.
• cut shapes and place on ungreased baking sheets.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Bake cookies in preheated oven about 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on racks.
• If desired, frost or ice with Ornamental Frosting.
• Makes about 8 dozen cookies.

THE MOTHER OF ALL BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt in a food processor, and pulse once or twice. Add butter, and pulse 10 or 20 times, until butter and flour are well combined. Add vanilla and egg and pulse 3 or 4 times. Add about half the milk and pulse 2 or 3 times. Add the remaining milk a little at a time, pulsing once or twice after each addition, until the dough holds together in a sticky mass.
• Remove the dough from the machine to one or more bowls. Make cookies as described in Step 3, or make any of the variations below.
• To make cookies, drop rounded teaspoons of dough (you can make the cookies larger or smaller, if you like) onto a nonstick baking sheet, a sheet lined with parchment paper or a lightly buttered sheet. If you want flat cookies, press the balls down a bit with your fingers or the back of a spatula or wooden spoon. Bake 11 minutes, or until the cookies are done as you like them. Cool on a rack, then store, if necessary, in a covered container.