Chewy Sugar Cookies

This weekend I had to go to a memorial service of a young 40 y/o man from high school. He was a young man with a very sweet little girl. I didn't have words to say but I have my gift of baking so I made cookies for the service. These Chewy Sugar Cookies from America's Test Kitchen came out perfect to fill bellies. 

Ingredients

2¼	cups (11¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½	teaspoon baking soda
1	teaspoon baking powder
½	teaspoon table salt
1½	cups (10½ ounces) sugar, plus ⅓ cup for rolling
2	ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
6	tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
⅓	cup vegetable oil
1	large egg
1	tablespoon milk
2	teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in large bowl. Place remaining ⅓ cup sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later). Whisk in oil until incorporated. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 tablespoons each (or use #40 portion scoop). Using hands, roll dough into balls. Working in batches, roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet, 12 dough balls per sheet. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle tops evenly with 4 teaspoons of sugar remaining in shallow dish (2 teaspoons per tray), discarding any remaining sugar. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

ALEXIS NOTES: I ran out of cream cheese so I used a trick of cottage cheese and milk. I also ran out of oil so I used Olive oil. I found my first batch made cookies that spread and were not the best looking. I made a second batch and added a 1/2 cup of flour, along with putting the batter in fridge for 30 minutes to firm up and bam better!

I sat with a few friends from high school and made them my test subjects and they said they were so most and delicious.

Enjoy I promise these will be a hit!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Themed Cookies ... Happy St. Patrick's Day - Shamrock Cookies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  One last treat made for the Boys Classmates.  This was simple just a little time consuming.  I've made a version of these cookies as Pumpkins and Hearts.  NOW to find a shamrock cookie cutter took me going to EIGHT stores, who knew they would be so hard to find.  THEN of course I couldn't find one big and one small.  So on to Amazon I went to find a set of 3 Shamrock cutters. A little spendy but I was desperate, don't tell my husband .. lol.  He thinks I over do it and shouldn't do all these things for the kids school, I tell him I only have a few more years before they won't take to baked goodies.

I started out with a Sugar cookie found on All Recipes, dubbed The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

After I let the dough chill for an hour I took 1/3 and left it white.  2/3 I took Kelly Green Wilton Icing Color to color the dough the right shade of green.  I rolled out the dough and cut my large shamrock cookies.  I then took a smaller shamrock to cut out the centers, make sure you be careful to make sure the dough is on the sides of each side.  I then rolled out the 2nd color and cut out smaller shamrock shapes.  I inserted a smaller shamrock of the 2nd color into the large shamrock.  I baked them for 7 minutes and then let them cool on a rack.  See below for a step by step picture.  

I had extra green left over so I made some large green shamrocks that I baked also.

I love doing these two tone cookies, they always make me smile.  They look so special and really not too much work but I think look like a million bucks!  I mixed it up with green on the outside and then white on the outside.  

Any St. Patrick Day Plans?

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

We All Need Something Sweet .... Watermelon Cookies

We had a family reunion this weekend and I love to bring things that aren't the normal run of the mill item.  I came across these Watermelon Cookies on That's What Che Said.  She used a store bought cookie but when I ran to the store and QFC had a small sugar cookie roll for $5.99, I thought I'm better off making them from scratch so that is what I did.  I found a rolled sugar cookie mix on All Recipes.  

I started with the sugar cookies, they have to rest several hours (or best case over night).  I got up at 5am before work on Saturday and got it mixed up and in the fridge to wait until I got off around 9:30am.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour

(or overnight).

This part is what you do if just making sugar cookies:

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

This was a simple sugar cookie recipe, I did add the Green Food Coloring to make the mix green.

Ingredients Needed:

Sugar cookie dough

1 can of Hot Pink Icing

Mini-Chocolate Chips

Green Food Coloring

Start off by opening your cookie dough (or make homemade dough), putting it in a bowl or on a cutting board and add green food coloring (I prefer Wilton's Food Coloring Gel).  Knead with your hands and add more food coloring until it's as green as you want it and thoroughly colored.  Roll dough and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.  I found it easiest to roll dough and take a circle cutter then I took a pizza cutter to cut circles in half to make a watermelon slice shape. Bake at 400 degrees F for 9 -10 minutes.  Let cool for about 10 minutes.   Add pink icing and mini-chocolate chips for the seeds!

These were a HUGE hit with the kids, and I made enough so I could bring to the Boy's and Girls Club.  I try to bring them a sweet treat every Monday for what they do, those volunteers are amazing!!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.