This soft sugar cookie recipe is great when you don’t have time to spend rolling out cookies. Cake-like in texture and puffy it’s like a sugary little pillow of deliciousness.
You may use butter or margarine with equal success, though I only bake with butter. It adds a depth to your baked goods that margarine just can’t match.
Cheery Soft Sugar Cookies
While I love a good frosted sugar cookie, there isn’t always time for intensive preparation. You know how it is. Some sugar cookie recipes require you to chill them for an hour before you can roll them out. This recipe isn’t like that. You don’t have to chill the dough or roll them out. Instead, you combine the ingredients, taking care not to overmix them, and plop the batter onto your baking sheet.
You don’t have to chill the dough or roll them out. Instead, you combine the ingredients, taking care not to overmix them, and plop the batter onto your baking sheet. I typically line my baking sheets with parchment paper for easy cleanup without that greasy residue from sprays.
Did you stop in your tracks when you saw the ingredient list and noticed the sour milk? Don’t worry about it. It’s so simple to make sour milk and completely foolproof. To make sour milk, simply add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to the cup of milk. Let it sit for a minute or two. That’s it. Easy, peasy.
Making Sugar Cookies
For uniform cookies without any hassle, I use a cookie dough scoop. These handy kitchen gadgets are available in several sizes. I’m including a few handy baking items in the images above. Yes, they are affiliate links.
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Are you wondering where I found such a treasure of a cookie recipe? Lean in close and I’ll share my secret to finding classic family-friendly cookie recipes (and, really, any recipe). Church cookbooks. So many churches have published their own cookbooks. It’s quite amazing. We occasionally visit churches while on our Little Indiana trips. Those cookbooks, when they have them, are sometimes a part of the welcome bag. This one came from Mary and Martha’s Kitchen from the Trinity United Methodist Church in Rensselaer, Indiana.
Otherwise, I turn to my local antique shops to find discarded church cookbooks. You will need to look closely at them to make sure they have recipes using ingredients you use. I prefer homemade items so if a cookbook relies too much on cake mixes, then I leave it behind.
You can usually find them for a real bargain. My favorites are the church cookbooks that have obviously been used. I love reading the handwritten notes, seeing the splatters, and finding the occasional loose recipe used as a bookmark.
Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Cup Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Shortening
- 1/2 Cup Margarine or Butter, Softened
- 3 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla or Nutmeg
- 1 Cup Sour Milk or Buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 4 to 6 Cups All-Purpose Flour
Instructions
- 350* oven.
- Combine Sugar, Shortening, and Butter (or Margarine).
- Add in Eggs and Vanilla Extract or Nutmeg.
- Dissolve Baking Soda in 1/8 Cup Boiling Water. Add in Sour Milk, Dissolved Baking Soda, and Baking Powder.
- Use 4 to 6 Cups All-Purpose Flour. The more Flour, the flatter the cookie. I prefer 4 1/2 to 5 Cups of Flour. Mix just until combined.
- Using a 1 1/2 Tablespoon Cookie Dough Scoop, measure out dough. Plop it down a few inches apart--the less flour you use, the more they will spread.
- Top with Sprinkles for a fun touch.
- Bake from 15-18 minutes depending on the heat of your oven. The edges will brown and the Soft Sugar Cookies will firm up.
I hope you enjoy these simple sugar cookies. It’s nice to bake something that requires so little effort for such a nice end result.
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