Sugar Cookie Recipe 1 : Me 0

As you might expect, the recipe failed to roll out.  The dough was much much too sticky.  I think this is on par with Gorilla Glue not Elmer's.  There's no use wasting good dough, so I decided to try my nifty new cookie pans.  Just in case you don't know, don't stuff them full of cookie dough.  You get GIANT cookie puff muffin-like things (at this point I'm not sure they can be called cookies).  The non-stick pan did live up to advertisement, which is fortunate because I'd already made one giant mess.  I decided I could make nice round cookies after my too sticky to roll, puffy muffin debacles.  One handy cookie scoop, some sugar sprinkles and away we go.  They turned out pretty nice, but the texture is a little off.  When these cookies roll, you roll them to about 1/4 inch thickness.  This gives it a nice texture crunch with a little loft.  My round cookies have a good bit of loft, so to me it's definitely a good, but different moment. :-) 

Hrmmm, think I'll try Grandpa's side of the family sugar cookies next...




uh oh, rolled a little, but dough sticking slightly to non-stick (I don't really believe it) rolling pin




dough really sticking, ok, like half the dough




dough stuck to counter (even with extra flour), rolling pin, and me





fluffy, puffy muffin "cookies"



the relief side of the fluffy muffin like "cookies"









The *%(#*&@ Sugar Cookies (Attempt #1)

Any time multiple expletives precede the word cookie in our family we usually know someone is talking about (Great) Aunt Ann's sugar cookie recipe.  The recipe is deceptively easy.  The problem is in the stickiness.  Make the dough, chill the dough, and then the stickiness monsters strike.  The stickiness problem led to my mom and I making these cookies on the back porch around midnight or one o'clock in the morning trying to keep it cold enough (it was like 30 to 40 degrees outside, cold for southern NC) to roll the dough without sticking.  Yes, me in a warm jacket dancing around to keep the motion sensor lights on so we could see; my father upstairs snoring to the rafters oblivious to his crazy family; and general trash-talk back and forth about the *expletive, expletive* cookies that someone (not me) just HAD to make. 

The stickiness problem has plagued my mother and my aunts, probably even my grandma over the years to the point of frustrated refusal to make them ever again.  Aunt Ann checked the recipe and deemed it correct.  I expect I'll have the same problem, but the dough must be conquered! 

Oh and did I mention my lack of patience at rolling dough?  This'll be interesting.

sugar cookie dough

The Project

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember, my family has always baked our "family standards" in Christmas cookies, breads, candies, and probably cakes and pies as well.  As the years have gone on, the kids and grandkids have gotten older, and the great grandkids find other "more interesting" things to do with their time, this tradition appears to be going by the wayside, much to our regret. 

This year, it was left up to me to make the bread for Christmas morning and I made a wonderful discovery: Grandma's Recipe Box.  I didn't know my mother had it all this time.  There are recipes in there with a title and 3 ingredients and that's it!  No measurements, instructions, baking times, temperatures or anything else that might make a "normal" recipe.  Mom said that's how Grandma and my great aunts did it, mostly by memory.  Fortunately for me, there are still a lot of recipes that look like "normal" recipes, with ingredients and quantities, instructions (sometimes), times and temperatures.  I've been thinking on this a good deal - ok, at least overnight - and I have decided on The Project.


The Project:  Create (at least) 1 confection from Grandma's Recipe Box per week for 1 year

Goal: To bring back some tasty vintage cookies, cakes, breads, and candies that may have gotten lost in an effort to be modern - and a little bit of family history too.