Post by Phoenix Wings on Dec 7, 2010 12:59:33 GMT -5
So, I’m in a Chrismas-y mood (if you couldn’t tell from the newest layout) and I was thinking about posting a holiday cyber recipe swap. I don’t know if anyone else here cooks or bakes but, eh, I do and this seemed like a good idea at the time.
This is a 57-year old cookie recipe from one of my Grandmother’s cookbooks, what I like about it is you can mix up one dough and get an almost infinite variety of different cookies depending on what mix-ins you use. It also makes a lot, depending on how you cut the cookies, you’ll get a few dozen (the recipe says cutting 2-inch rounds will give you 14 dozen cookies).
Foundation Sugar Cookies
1 cup shortening (unsalted butter)
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons milk (whole milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla (pure extract, no imitation)
3 eggs, beaten
5 ½ cups cake flour (I never buy cake flour; the book says you can substitute all purpose flour, just remove 2 tablespoons of flour from every cup and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch.)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
(Preheat oven to 375 F)
Cream shortening, gradually add sugar and cream well. Add milk and vanilla to beaten eggs. Sift all dry ingredients together. Add alternately with liquid ingredients to creamed mixture. Chill completely. (After chilling, if you want multiple kinds of cookies, divide the dough into an equal number of portions. Keep any portions that you aren't working with refrigerated.) Roll out small portions of dough at a time to ¼ inch thickness on a floured pastry cloth (or a floured counter). Keep remaining dough in the refrigerator and save all scraps for the finally rolling so that the dough does not become overworked. Bake in a moderate oven (375 F) 15 minutes. (check during baking for doneness) Makes 168 2-inch cookies.
Variations:
Cinnamon-Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top of the unbaked cutouts.
Caraway-Sprinkle tops of the unbaked cutouts with caraway seed and sugar.
Coconut-Add 1 cup shredded coconut to the foundation dough.
Jelly-Place teaspoon of tart jelly on to of unbaked cutouts. For a fancier cookie, roll the dough very thin and cut with a round cutter. Place jelly on top of 1 cookie and cover with a second cookie from which a tiny round center has been cut.
Lemon-Add to dough 2 teaspoons lemon extract, omit vanilla. Decorate unbaked cutouts with bits of candied cherry and lemon peel.
Spice-Add to dough 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon cloves. Sprinkle with sugar before baking.
(Other foundation recipes in the book talk about adding nuts, dried/candied fruit and melted chocolate or coco; I don’t see any reason you can’t add those to this recipe so long as you don’t change the consistency of the dough but I’d watch those like a hawk since the cook time might vary slightly.)
I've got a good recipe for icing that can go on the plain cookies, but I can't seem to find it. I'll add it if anyone is actually interested in this.
This is a 57-year old cookie recipe from one of my Grandmother’s cookbooks, what I like about it is you can mix up one dough and get an almost infinite variety of different cookies depending on what mix-ins you use. It also makes a lot, depending on how you cut the cookies, you’ll get a few dozen (the recipe says cutting 2-inch rounds will give you 14 dozen cookies).
Foundation Sugar Cookies
1 cup shortening (unsalted butter)
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons milk (whole milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla (pure extract, no imitation)
3 eggs, beaten
5 ½ cups cake flour (I never buy cake flour; the book says you can substitute all purpose flour, just remove 2 tablespoons of flour from every cup and add 1 tablespoon cornstarch.)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
(Preheat oven to 375 F)
Cream shortening, gradually add sugar and cream well. Add milk and vanilla to beaten eggs. Sift all dry ingredients together. Add alternately with liquid ingredients to creamed mixture. Chill completely. (After chilling, if you want multiple kinds of cookies, divide the dough into an equal number of portions. Keep any portions that you aren't working with refrigerated.) Roll out small portions of dough at a time to ¼ inch thickness on a floured pastry cloth (or a floured counter). Keep remaining dough in the refrigerator and save all scraps for the finally rolling so that the dough does not become overworked. Bake in a moderate oven (375 F) 15 minutes. (check during baking for doneness) Makes 168 2-inch cookies.
Variations:
Cinnamon-Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top of the unbaked cutouts.
Caraway-Sprinkle tops of the unbaked cutouts with caraway seed and sugar.
Coconut-Add 1 cup shredded coconut to the foundation dough.
Jelly-Place teaspoon of tart jelly on to of unbaked cutouts. For a fancier cookie, roll the dough very thin and cut with a round cutter. Place jelly on top of 1 cookie and cover with a second cookie from which a tiny round center has been cut.
Lemon-Add to dough 2 teaspoons lemon extract, omit vanilla. Decorate unbaked cutouts with bits of candied cherry and lemon peel.
Spice-Add to dough 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon cloves. Sprinkle with sugar before baking.
(Other foundation recipes in the book talk about adding nuts, dried/candied fruit and melted chocolate or coco; I don’t see any reason you can’t add those to this recipe so long as you don’t change the consistency of the dough but I’d watch those like a hawk since the cook time might vary slightly.)
I've got a good recipe for icing that can go on the plain cookies, but I can't seem to find it. I'll add it if anyone is actually interested in this.
aen, i'm Kaleidocat on ao3! im in a personal branding crisis rn haha
And I did eventually finish my thesis, if anyone was wondering