Yummy Soft Sugar Cookies

Cookies and Christmas just go together. Even if you resist. And what child doesn't love the fun of making cut out sugar cookies?

I come from a long tradition of non-cooks, but when I was growing up we had the cooking encyclopedia in the house that apparently everyone else had. The Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, by Meta Givens.

I was about fourteen when Christmas cookie mania struck and I went searching for a recipe. The one in the encyclopedia (the only cookbook in the house) fit the bill.

The recipe was enormous and made seemingly hundreds of thick soft cookies with a wonderful flavor that came from the surprise ingredient of sour cream.

I suppose I thought sugar cookie recipes were everywhere. And they really are. So when I left home I never gave a thought to that old recipe until years later.

When I finally got around to asking for it, Mom had long since unloaded the Cooking Encyclopedia somewhere, and had no idea what I was talking about!

Thus began a search through vintage shops for the old thick green book with the red square on the spine. Today I would google it, or look on ebay, (even though I had no title or author's name) but I was then living in the old time century of  1977.

The major clue of authentication, though, was the somewhat unique ingredient of sour cream. My casual search went on for enough years that when I became interested in antiques, it was now routine to peruse the vintage cookbook section. And then one day there it was.

It was an odd and stunning thrill to finally find the object of my mild obsession. About twenty-five years had passed since I had last made the recipe. I marked the page, and wrote "This is the one!" in the margin.

I wish I could tell you that I now make a gigantic batch of my favorite sugar cookies every year. But rolled cookies are labor intensive, and I don't spend a lot of time near a kitchen in my daily travels anymore.

Still, my fat green cookbook has a place of honor in my collection, and still holds the secret for the most delicious sugar cookie I have ever tasted. . . .

Combine as for any other (merely regular) sugar cookie recipe.

Here are the quite dated mixing instructions as they are printed in the book:

Grease baking sheet lightly. Start oven 10 minutes before baking; set to hot (450 degrees F.) YES, 450 F. Use a 3-qt mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon.

Sift flour, measure, resift 4 times with the next 4 ingredients. Cream butter or combination of shortenings until smooth, add sugar gradually, creaming well. Stir in vanilla, then beat in eggs until fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with cream in 2 or 3 portions, mixing until smooth after each.  Scrape off spoon, remove.  Cover bowl and chill in refrigerator an hour or so to firm dough for easier rolling. Remove 1/3 of dough at a time. Roll out on a slightly floured pastry cloth with stockinet-covered rolling pin 1/4-inch thick. Cut out with a 3 1/2-inch cutter. Place on a prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired. Bake 9 to 10 minutes. Remove at once to cake rack to cool. Store in a tight-covered cookie jar or box with waxed paper between layers. 40 cookies.

I hope you're enjoying jolly cookie memories of your own!

Happy baking!

Ciao! for now!

Jacqueline

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