Tuesday, December 9, 2008

TWD: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies


I'll admit when I saw that Ulrike of Küchenlatein had chosen Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, I was skeptical. You see, I've tried lots of sugar cookie recipes and I have what I think is the best one.

Mine are cakey and have that sweet buttery saltiness that I've grown to love. I bake them until they're just set (no brown bottom-side allowed!) and they're nice and soft. At this point, if I try a new sugar cookie recipe (which I rarely do), it's only to confirm that mine really is the best. (I can't take credit, though, the recipe came by way of a friend who is a cookie-baking queen.)

I have to admit that I am quite biased on this issue (bordering on arrogance, I know).


The thing is, everybody feels that way. They think their sugar cookies, or their mom's or grandma's or Aunt Josephine's, are the best. Now that I think about it, I don't know why anyone would serve sugar cookies to guests, LOL. Well, at least not if the guests were bakers.

All that being said, I thought Dorie's sugar cookies were pretty darn good. They were close to mine... not quiiiite as good, but they would certainly do in a pinch.

And the idea of doing them as slice and bake cookies... I'm smacking myself in the head wondering why I never thought of that. Sooooo much easier than rolling and cutting.



I made several different versions, all starting out with a log of dough that had been chilled in the refrigerator overnight. For the first set, I made stripes of white and purple sanding sugar on a paper towel and rolled the log through that. Then sliced and baked.




I took it one step further with some of the purple-stripey-edged cookies and pressed the tops into more sanding sugar. I was surprised to find this was my favorite one.


Lastly, I made Trios, which graced the cover of Gourmet magazine's Christmas issue either last year or the year before (different recipe, of course).

The first thing I did was to cut the log of cookie dough in half, and then each half in half again. Then I sliced the new, smaller logs into pieces, in an effort to get evenly sized pieces. (If I did this again, I would try to make them a tad smaller. I thought the smaller cookies turned out best. The goal is to try to get teaspoon sized pieces.) Finally, I rolled the pieces into balls, grouping the balls from each log together.






Next, I took each ball and flattened it ever so slightly, then pressed a well in the center using my finger and the end of a wooden spoon. (I would make the wells larger next time.) Then I placed three balls together, just barely touching. You want to see empty space in the center of the cluster.


Then I grabbed three different jams from my stash and very carefully placed a little gob of each kind in different wells. I used my 1/8 teaspoon measuring spoon for this part (which was quite tedious and not as easy as you might think.)




Then baked... for, I don't know, 10 minutes or so. I always watch for when the cookie no longer looks shiny. I don't wait until I start to seeing browning on the bottom... that's too long for my taste buds.

For this recipe, I think I would chill the Trios for 10-15 minutes first to prevent spreading in the oven. The larger ones spread a little and they weren't quite as cute as the smaller cookies.

OK, that's the report from this corner of the world. If you 'd like to check out this recipe, please visit Ulrike's site above (look for the American/British flag button to see the post in English). Also, please stop by the Tuesday's with Dorie website and check out all of the other bakers and their sugar cookies (blog roll is on the left side, scroll down.) My recipe can be found HERE, by the way :)

29 comments:

Sihan said...

i'm impressed that you actually spent so much time getting all those different designs out! i was rather lazy. haha. But still those looks fantastic! especially with the trio of jam!

Anonymous said...

Your cookies look awesome! I know what you mean about liking your own sugar cookie recipe. After all was said and done, I wound up pulling my sugar cookie dough out of the freezer to make some more cookies!

Jin Hooi said...

wow... creative you !!! I didn't add anything to my cookies .. hahaha.. lazy me

Shelby said...

love all of your versions!

chocolatechic said...

The trio's look wonderful.

Bunny said...

Your cookies are so pretty, I love the trios, they look so soft! I bookmarked your sugar cookie recipe, Sugar cookies are my favorite cookie!

Pamela said...

They all look fabulous, but the trios are really outstanding! Great job.

Amanda said...

They look beautiful! I did something similar. I did some slice and bake, some cookie cutters, and the rest I rolled in balls and then dipped them in colored sugar. I iced them with caramel icing, cream cheese frosting and confectioner's glaze :)

Cathy said...

Wow, they look beautiful! I LOVE the trios -- I think these would be fantastic with a little jam. I laughed when you said that we probably shouldn't serve sugar cookies to anyone - I can see your point. And thanks for linking to the best sugar cookie recipe in the world -- how can I not give that one a try?

kimberly salem said...

your trios look wonderful!! what a great idea. glad you liked them almost as good as your go-to recipe :)

Flourchild said...

Ahhh love your purple sprinkles and the way you decorated your cookies. I love the log idea, slice and bake.

Jennywenny said...

Thats funny, I made them this weekend without realising it was the tuesday with dorie recipe. I added molasses and lemon peel and ginger and they were very good! Well, my test samples were. You'd have hated them as they were quite brown and nutty, the way I like them! I'll be trying icing them tomorrow.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I love BOTH your variations. If I can get away from our addiction to sugar cookie shapes, I will try them. Especially the jam ones, because I have a ton of jam in my stash!
I had to chuckle at your comment about not serving sugar cookies to other bakers.
Nancy

Tammy said...

I loved the ones rolled in the purple sugar. I will have to try that technique!

What's for Supper? said...

Very nice. You are quite talented. Thanks for all the creative ideas!

Anonymous said...

Ah, what an easy way to do trios! Cool.

Carol Peterman/TableFare said...

I liked this sugar cookie, but don't have a favorite of my own to compare it to. I think I will have to give yours a try as well.

Patricia said...

Impressive execution! I would have never thought to do the stripes of sanding sugar or the trios. I'll have to try out your sugar cookie recipe next!

vibi said...

HO! HO! HO! I'm so glad you ended up really liking them!
Although the purpple sprinkle ones would probably be the ones catching my eye, as they extremely pretty, but I'm sure I wouldn't be able to resist the three flavors in one cookie: hos ingenious! (sigh) I can't help but always choosing the most caloric foods! LOL
Very, very nice Jacque!

Leslie said...

I love all of your versions, especially the trios and the striped sanding sugar. They look so tender and delicious!

noskos said...

What a great idea to do them as trios! They look really beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Way too much work for me, but your effort was well worth it. Very cool idea to make the stripes and the trios are interesting to!

grace said...

how lovely! and i'm with you--just say no to brown bottoms. :)

Anonymous said...

Love that trio of cookies! I've been meaning to make those since I saw Gourmet's cover last year!!! They look fantastic!

The Food Librarian said...

You are soooo creative!! Those trios are amazing. And I love love the purple sugar! My favorite color!

Anonymous said...

oh! i love the sparkly sugar cookies--so festive! and great idea on the jam...after the linzer cookies, i'm all about jam with cookies. i'm excited about next week's buttery jam cookies!

great job. your cookies look fantastic!

AmyRuth said...

You just made me giggle...I totally think my sugar ("cakey") cookie recipe is one of the best I've ever had. Other people love them as well. I've shared....Anyway, along with the other millions of recipes out there, I did like this one and glad you showed us some really thoughtful variations. I saw the cute little thumbprint trios just a day or two ago. So neat. Thanks you for your kind comments.
AmyRuth

Megan said...

It was last year's Gourmet magazine cover - I still have it. There were so many good cookie recipes in that issue.

Anyways, would you share your recipe for sugar cookies? I do prefer soft cookies over hard crunchy ones.

Anonymous said...

I've had that Trio recipe flagged as to bake since I got that edition of Gourmet in the mail. Your version looks great!