Thursday, May 5, 2011

C is for...


It has been bothering me for a while, to be sharing a constant stream of sugar cookie concepts, without being able to share a sugar cookie recipe, to go with them. Since I was unable to obtain permission to share my usual recipe of choice here on the blog, I've been working on coming up with one of my own.

After some trial and error, I hit on a recipe I'm happy with, using simple ingredients, in easy to remember quantities, that can be easily halved for smaller snack times, when you need a dozen cookies, or less. I tried it out on the children, and then the Man of the House, to get their approval, and then today, the girls helped me with one final test...


...using it to make some of the cookies we've featured here, in the past, as well as a few new ones, just for fun.

Almost Unschooler's Sugar Cookie Dough


  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, softened

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla (or substitute various extracts to change the flavor)

  • 2 eggs

  • 2 cups of flour

Cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs.


Stir in the flour.


When it becomes difficult to mix with a spoon, use your hands to mix and knead the dough...


...until it becomes smooth, and only slightly sticky (you may need to rinse your hands off, as the flour begins to mix in).


Don't worry if the dough seems a little too sticky, and soft, you can add up to 1/4 cup more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until it stops sticking to your hands, and feels like soft play dough.

If you are planning to add cocoa powder to part of the dough, divide the dough before adding the extra flour, then add the cocoa (2 tablespoons for half a batch) to one half, and the extra flour (then only 2 tablespoons) to the other.


Again, mix it in by hand.



If you add liquid food coloring, add a little more flour too, if the dough seems too sticky to work with.

The dough will feel soft, but if you use a light hand, and roll from the center of the dough out, you should be able to roll it out on wax paper, and cut it with cookie cutters, without using any additional flour (this really keeps the mess down).

Cut, or form the dough into just about anything you can think of, on a greased cookie sheet...


...and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes, or until the cookies feel slightly firm to the touch, and are just beginning to brown at the edges.


Fourteen minutes is just enough time to clean the kitchen back up. In fact, since we had two pans of cookies, today, making 28 minutes of baking, there was even time left over to check with our library's website, and pick out a few cookie themed books, to send the older children after.

Because, you know, if you give a homeschooler a cookie...

...they'll want a story to go with it.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

23 comments:

Debbie said...

That plate of cookies look so inviting and like a family is ready for Spring!

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Time for that book deal, my friend! Can't wait to try these out. :)

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Awesome! I want to see "Learning through Baking" in print too! By the way, does it mean that this recipe doesn't require refrigeration and can be rolled out right away?

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Natalie - Absolutely, the only time to refridgerate it is after cutting, if you really, really don't want any spreading at all during baking, even then it will spread some, but that cuts it down - I like to be able to mix, and bake quickly, and like my dough easy to work with :)

Phyllis said...

I think it is great that you made all of your old favorites! You are amazing!

Elle Belles Bows said...

Very cute!

I love the dinosaur!

Kerri

phasejumper said...

Cute post!

Sandra (Sam) said...

I think I may love you! I have NEVER been able to get a sugar cookie recipe to work without me wanting to throw the whole lot of dough in the garbage. This seems to require no refrigeration and since you make sugar cookies so often it can't be constantly sticking to the rolling pin even if you used 6237lbs of flour! I'll have to try this ASAP.

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

How fantastic!! I'm going to give it a go -- even though I'm not much of a baker, I might be able to pull this one off! Thanks so much for sharing!!

Joyful Learner said...

I want an autographed copy when you first publish your book and I'm going to buy multiple copies to give to friends as gifts. So, I hope you will publish it!!!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Now, if only you guys were publishers :)

Rose @ Walnut Acre said...

This looks like a great recipe for little to be creative with. I can't wait to try it.

Ticia said...

I bet you could find someone.

Unknown said...

OK, my Aunt has a publishing company she works with with her book design businesses... Contact me- I would love to be your "agent"... ;0)

nikki said...

soooo lovely :)

Cindy said...

I want to officially request a gluten free version! ;)

Looks YUMMY!

Mihaela { Best Toys 4 Toddlers } said...

I have forwarded two blog awards to your blog as I find it both really inspiring and fabulous: http://willowatsquidoo.blogspot.com/2011/05/couple-awards-to-share-fabulous.html

Emily said...

i just made a fresh double batch (one is still in the oven as i type :O) sooo yummy,
http://studyandsew.blogspot.com/2011/05/guess-what-just-came-out-of-oven.html
mmm they look so tasty don't they! thanks for a fabulous recipe.

Christy Killoran said...

I will happily buy your cookie book! I have been looking for a good sugar cookie recipe for years. I will be trying this very soon, as soon as we are unpacked and all of the laundry is caught up (sigh). That plate of cookies looks so good.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mary said...

Just used this recipe for the pointillism cookies and OH MAN, FINALLY!!! A simple ingredient, simple instruction recipe without refrigeration that turns out PERFECTLY. Thank you for that! One question - what food coloring did you use? Regular or Wiltons or something different? We didn't use any to color the dough this time, but will in the future. THANKS SO MUCH AGAIN!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Mary - Thanks, I'm glad you like the recipe. I use whatever liquid food coloring happens to be at the store - usually Durkee or McCormick. If you add a lot of food coloring, then you need to add a little more flour.

Amanda @ Mamaslittleladybugs.blogspot.com said...

This recipe was a total fail from start to finish. I normally choose store-bought dough, but figured this has to be just as good, by how often you bake cookies. When I mixed the ingredients according to your directions, the dough was INCREDIBLY sticky. We're talkin gum-paste sticky. It was a nightmare. I kept adding flour and only until I added 4 more quarter cups, was the dough NOT sticking. I added more sugar b/c I figured with all that flour, it wouldn't be very appetizing. Then, after our cookies baked, they were rock hard and didn't take like a cookie. More like a cracker (minus the salt). What on earth did I do wrong??? I admire you and read your blog daily, and I'm so bummed out about this. :(

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Amanda - I make this all the time, with very good results, so I'm not sure. A couple of thoughts though - the butter should be soft, but not completely melted, or else you will need extra flour, and the eggs I use are not extremely large - they say large on the package, but they look more medium to me. Also, I often mix the dough with my hands, to get all the flour worked in. If you do that though, you absolutely need to rinse your hands off at least once during the mixing process to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. I hope you'll give it another try, and let me know how it goes!