Chewy Sugar Cookies and KING ARTHUR FLOUR GIVEAWAY!
Christmas seems to get more and more hectic each year when you have a family. Shopping, decorating, lists, baking, Christmas cards, wrapping, watching your budget, crafting, and all of the other little things we do to make the season special for our families.
While our kids and spouses get to sit back and enjoy the season, we rush and run around to create more magic, more, More..MORE!! ~laughs~ It gets a little harried, but I have one thing I do that I look forward to every year. Each year around this time, I start cookbook shopping. Not an ordinary book, but a big old thick cookbook with a nice hardback cover that I can really curl up with.
I really enjoy looking over my different options, reading reviews, pondering the pros of this one or that…and then I finally make my decision. I always order it by mail (Usually Amazon.com) so that it arrives sealed up in a box. Here is the important part: I do not open that box! I wrap it the day it comes in and place it beneath the tree with my name on it.
The remaining weeks are spent with me casting longing glances beneath the tree and looking forward to Christmas morning where I unwrap my prize and spend the better part of that day curled up in the recliner leisurely flipping through pages, enjoying my new toy as my kids enjoy theirs.
For two of the past few years, those books have been from King Arthur Flour. I love cookbooks, but it takes a lot for me to get really excited over one. There are four cookbooks in print right now that I trust completely. I own two King Arthur Flour cookbooks, so they hold two of those places!
You know how you see a new recipe, want to take it to an event, but feel you need to “try it out” first to make sure it tastes good? My favorite cookbooks are the ones which I trust completely, they require no trials or testing. You can choose a recipe and make it for the very first time to take to a grand event and know it will be perfect and loved by all. That’s how King Arthur recipes are.
The two King Arthur books I have (and love) are The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook
This cookbook is the essential guide on cookies. Just for sugar cookies alone there are 15 recipes and at least as many for our beloved chocolate chip! Each recipe features an introduction which describes the cookie texture and flavor..allowing you to choose exactly the type you are looking for with ease and confidence.
I still haven’t chosen my cookbook for this year. I need to pay another visit to King Arthur Flour’s site…
Now on to these delicious cookies…
My son has always loved the sugar cookies they sell in the malls. He calls them “sprinkle cookies” because they are covered in colorful sprinkles. I made these for the first time a few years back and he was elated when he came home from school. He actually thought I had been to the mall just to buy him cookies! They taste so wonderful and really beg to be dunked into a glass of milk. These are classic Santa cookies! You won’t believe the texture. When you pick them up, they feel like a regular cookie, but biting in reveals a tender chewiness unlike any other.
Feeling the love now, Michael?) 
Ingredients
- From Page 55 Of The The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook 3/4 Cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 Cup brown sugar
- 1/4 Cup light corn syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg or 1/4 tsp lemon oil (optional, your choice - I left both of these out)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup coarse or granulated sugar, for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, granulated and brown sugars, corn syurup, vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and egg. Stir in flour.
- Place coarse sugar in shallow dish. Drop dough by tablespoonfull (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here) into sugar, rolling the balls to coat them. Place on prepared baking sheets. (We just dig out hands in the dough, grab a bit, and roll it up in a ball - I've never owned a cookie scoop!)
- Bake cookies for ten minutes until the edges are just barely beginning to brown, they'll look soft. If you bake these cookies too long, they'll be crunch rather than chewy. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely.
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Nov 11 2008. Filed under Cookies, Dessert.
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Too many memories to list but then a lot of water has flowed under this bridge. One thing that always brings a chuckle is remembering how many trips to the bathroom my sisters and I made on Christmas eve, always detouring by the tree to see if Santa had come. Another one is skating in the living room on our new skates. And always memories of the annual Christmas family reunion with all my aunts, uncles, cousins,and grandmother, the wonderful food, the warm house. And the ride around town to look at all the Christmas lights – one year we even went by to see the lights at Elvis’ house (and that was before Graceland!) Guess I’ve dated myself now!
Those cookies look delish! I am going to have to try them out. My favorite holiday activity is baking/candy making with the kids. It always takes longer and makes a bigger mess, but they love it and they will remember it fondly someday. (I hope)
So many memories, but my absolute favorite is when my children (a son and a daughter) were still young enough to sleep in twin beds in the same room. On Christmas Eve, I would tuck then in and softly sing Silent Night to them. It was such a peaceful way to end the hectic pre-Christmas planning and to settle them down to wait for Santa Claus. They both remember this as well, and have continued the tradition with their own children.
My other favorite memory is that at 56 years old, I have spent every Christmas of my life with my Mama. She’s 80 years old now and can no longer cook. So I prepare the holiday meal and transport it to her house – good thing she lives only a few blocks away! And my husband and I, all our children and grandchildren, and my brother and SIL all spend at least part of the day with her. We never know when it will be our last Christmas with her so it’s always bittersweet, but we know we’ll always have those sweet memories of Christmas with Mama to cherish.
My favorite Christmas memories are when my kids were small, and witnessing the child-like wonder of the season. These days, they are 22 & 19, and I'm trying to emphasize the real meaning of CHRISTmas and not the store-bought version.
I have wonderful memories of gathering at my grandparents home in central Mississippi with all my cousins a couple of days before Christmas. We were immediately put to work gathering pine boughs and pine cones to arrange around the house, then we would decorate a live tree that was in a huge galvanized bucket. The base of the tree would be wrapped in burlap to which we had attached felted ornaments and the branches would be covered with old tinsel and fragile glass ornaments from some Eastern European country. Once the tree was done, my grandmother would let us help her make cookies, lots and lots of cookies. Nutmeg logs, date pinwheels, sugar cookies, and cocoons (Mexican wedding cookies). Then we would make divinity and popcorn balls. On Christmas Eve my great-grandmother would tell us the story of the birth of Jesus after we had dressed in matching pajamas that my grandmother had made! On Christmas morning after unwrapping presents we would gather around the fire with biscuits and sausage. At mid-morning my grandfather would call us into the kitchen as he worked his magic with fresh citrus fruit and freshly cracked coconut. When he finished with the “Ambrosia” he would make the cornbread dressing! Those were wonderful times! There was an abundance of food, most of which had been harvested from the garden or butchered from the fields. There was also an overflowing of love, laughter, and warmth.
My favorite Christmas memory is visiting my grandfather in the nursing home on his last Christmas. Santa came in and gave him a flower and my grandfather, who never really got excited about anything, got the biggest grin and was so happy. It made his Christmas Eve, and mine, too.
Tammy
other than the corn syrup, this is basically the same recipe I use for chocolate chip cookies! Gonna try this one cause the sugar cookie recipe I have always leaves a strange aftertaste, and knowing how great my chocolate chip cookies usually taste, this one should be AWESOME!!
One of my best christmas memories is cooking with granny in the kitchen.. she started baking and making candy weeks in advance then she make her gift boxes of goodies that she handed out to her family and friends. I do this now… but on a smaller scale!
I too love to read cookbooks! I can spend hours on a new one. My favorite holiday is Christmas. There are so many fond memories tied in with Christmas! A big hello to Miss Millie.
ive heard a lot about king arthur flour lately and didn’t know they had a cook book. i need to try it and see what all the fuss is about….i’m sure its awesome! thanks for doing this christy
thanks
kc
I haven’t been celebrating Christmas for that long but so far, my favorite memory is when my husband asked me to marry him on Christmas eve. It was quite a horrible day up to that point and I just wanted to go back to my hotel room after my flight to his home state(we lived 2 states apart)but he insisted on us taking a second at the airport. He hugged me and I noticed he was trying to hide something behind his back. Thats when he asked me to marry him.
My favorite memories are the ones I make now. Every Christmas I have a different color theme, like blue, red and this year pink. Everything is in the color theme from the decorations to the wrapping paper. My father’s favorite cookies are cut outs so after icing, I sprinkle on the same color sugar and we laugh when his tongue turns the appropriate color.
(Hi to Miss Millie! I have to agree – the nails are pretty!) My favorite holiday memory/tradition is the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone else is shopping, my sister and her daughters come to my house, and we craft presents and cards and make cookies and homemade caramels and just have fun together!
My memories are the ones with all the goodies that my mom/family made at the Holidays. For a few yrs, I used to make trays of various cookies, rocky road to hand out to friends and family.
I do not have alot of great memories of Christmas. But one that I did love when I lived with my first cousin and her roommate we loved going to look at the christmas lights. We saw some gorgeous houses!! And that was something I looked forward to.:)
Sharon:)
i cant wait for the Christmas season. We like to look at the lights around the town and then we make cookies to decorate and share as a tradition. This will be a good one to try.
My favorite childhood holiday memory is how we would all wait and be excited to sit around the kitchen table and cut out, bake and decorate all the kitchen cookies with the colored icings and sprinkles!
This is a wonderful contest! One of my favorite memories takes place not too long ago when i first brought my husband home to meet my whole family. Our traditional christmas involves my “immediate” family all gathering at my grandparents house, they lived next door to my parents. My husband comes from a large city and has a small family, five people, to say he was overwhelmed would be an extreme understatement. Unfortunately I didn’t realize how many of my family there really are, that christmas there was about 40, or how loud and boisterous we can get till my now hubby literally started hearing white noise in his left ear, it lasted for a couple days! He’s gotten better but still takes frequent breaks to walk our dogs whenever we start getting too loud.
One of my favorite Christmas memories, is the year that I received an “Easy Bake Oven”. I was about 10 years old. I think that’s when my love of cooking started to emerge!
I also remember my mom and her sister spending days in the kitchen making fabulous Italian cookies. Hard work, but so worth it.
I love your site, Christy! I’ve made many of your recipes. Keep up the good work!
Christy, I also love to collect cook books. I can sit for hours going through a good one. For years my daughters and I have had a Christmas tradition that starts the day after Thanksgiving. We get up early and shop for all the deals. Ha! It gets tougher every year. Then we go home and get everything out to decorate the tree. I have also got a lot of christmas villages that I collect. We used to put on some christmas music and put the dvd of a burning fire in the fireplace (fake of course) but you could almost feel the heat. Get some hot cocoa going and start putting the tree up. (artificial of course my youngest is alergic to real) Sometimes the girls come in and try to surprise me with it the next morning with everything decorated and the village out. But to tell you the truth, I liked the old days when I was there with them and we all decorated everything. We got to talk about the old ornaments who made them and when even if we were using a different theme that year. We always went to my parents on Christmas Eve for breakfast (Chocolate gravy, biscuits, potatoes, bacon, ham, sausage, white gravy, eggs etc etc) There was so many of us we had to draw names with the kids and the adults. The adults always played the white elephant game with our gifts. It’s always fun to take a gift you know someone wants so you can negociate later. LOL. Christmas is for giving and I always made sure my kids knew the real meaning of Christmas and one ornament we always put on the tree is a Large nail with a red ribbon to represent the nails in Jesus hands when he was crucified on the cross. Our best gift to Him is to spread his Word and be a good witness for Him. So God Bless everyone and remember our memories are precious and we should pass them on to our family to keep them preserved.
I love your site and wish you the best.
Cindy
My absolute favorite holiday activity is taking a name from the community tree and being able to give someone something they wish for and would not otherwise get.
Gah, my reply didn’t post.
We’d get together with another family and go downtown to look at the lights and windows.
Then the 8 of us, 4 kids, 4 adults would pile into a horse drawn carriage and sing Hanukah songs at the top of our lungs.
We got some strange looks from pedestrians.
Those cookies sure look yummy! One of my favorite traditions is how my parents made sure they got sleep on Christmas night and morning without having to worry about us kids peeking at the tree. I didn’t like it at the time, but now I think it was an awesome idea. As soon as we went to bed and they got the living room all ready with presents, they would booby trap the hall way. Seriously, they would do things like tie all our doorknobs together so we couldn’t open the doors, and put jingle bells on the ties so they would know if we were trying to tamper with them. Or they would pin a sheet up at the living room entrance, again covered in jingle bells. We simply knew that there was no way we would be able to peek, because they always had these elaborate booby traps all over the place. Unfortunately, it also sometimes meant we couldn’t even get up to use the bathroom… Anyway, they wouldn’t take down the traps until 6:00 in the morning – no getting up at 3 for us! Then Dad would make us all line up, in reverse age order, in the hallway and get the video camera ready in the living room so he could tape us all filing into the living room. What fun!
Sorry for such a long post. I’m just sitting here reliving my childhood Christmases, I guess I lost track of time and space!
One of my favorite traditions growing up was the annual “Grinch” party that my grandparents had… The entire family got together for dinner (Roast Beast) and the watching of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” (this in the days before VCR’s when it was an event to wait for!)
Sadly, I don’t have a favorite holiday memory. I hope to make this year different, though!
I’m not sure if my comment posted. Sorry is this comes up twice. My new favorite Christmas activity is participating in an ornament swap. Its a great way to get lots of original handmade ornaments for your tree.
One of my fondest memories of Christmas was waking up on Christmas morning……….we opened are gifts Christmas Eve……..and getting my Christmas stocking. Mom always filled it with the sweetest most clever little gifts and a hand written note.
Looking back at Christmas growing up, I actually remember the food…believe it or not. There were always so many goodies that we normally didn’t get to have during the year. I loved the smell of the house when my mom baked all the cookies, pies, peanut butter fudge and the yummy peanut butter balls. I have carried on that tradition and hopefully my 2 boys will grow up remembering the same thing.
found you over at FoodBuzz, totally drawn to the King Arthur discussion. My current favorite baking cookbook is their Whole Wheat Baking book – I love it! My husband loves it too, he makes the most wonderful chocolate chip scones from that book.
As far as holiday baking memories – I remember each year my mom had a set group of cookies that she would make, all family favorites. I loved helping her with the sand tarts, which had a little almond pressed in the middle, before sprinkling with cinnamon sugar. If she was feeling fancy, she would get out the diamond cookie cutter, but mostly she would roll the dough and cut with a knife. I remember it like it was yesterday!
How wonderful! My favorite Christmas memory is getting to open one present on Christmas eve. We would spend all day scouting out the perfect one to open. I love your idea of wrapping up a cookbook. I may just do that. Oh the restraint you have to not open it beforehand!
When my daughter came along Christmas became a lot of fun and doubled with my son. We have a Christmas tradition. WE always watch Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation, Grinch Stole Christmas on Christmas Eve. Now that I have a new Son-n-Law we have added Jugband Christmas. Good times. Good times.
Holiday memories are so much fun! This Holiday is very special to us as God has blessed us with a beautiful baby princess. We have loads of activities. Bake Cookies with my four year old, shop surprise gifts for all, this time shopping teeny-tiny dresses for the little one:), decorating the Christmas tree together. I love to cook and entertain family and friends. Whole family having a cozy gathering, sipping a cup of hot chocolate on a cold evening, having long chats, opening surprise gifts ( wonder what my hubby would give me:)) watching snow fall from the window. I love to see our city decorated for holidays. It brings out the holiday atmosphere and fun.
playing holiday bingo “jingo” with the family each year.
My favorite tradition is going to the late candle light service on Christmas Eve with the whole family. It’s such a special time!!
~Hi Miss Millie!!
My favorite Christmas memory was going into labor with my oldest daughter.
I hope this works this time. One of my favorite memories of Christmas was receiving a homemade toy box. It was painted late in the night on Christmas Eve. Unbeknownst to all of us was that the paint was still wet the next morning. The top was padded and I sat on it to open my other gifts. My feet did not reach the floor. It was later noticed that the back of my slippers was marring the paint. The box was never repainted. It was like that for many long years. I loved that old box.
A favorite memory of my daughter is when she was about 4 she woke up in the middle of the night on Chistmas Eve. As she was coming into my room, she looked into the living room. At that time, my husband was putting more wood in the wood stove and he cast a big shadow across the floor. My daughter saw it and to this day says she saw Santa’s shadow!
My favorite holiday memory / tradition is coming home to visit my parents and cooking like mad with my mom for an entire weekend!
My favorite memory is making rool out sugar cookies with my mom. I just recently made them by myself for the first time and the smell of the icing just took me back.
My favorite memory is everyone loading up in the family station wagon and riding around looking at Christmas lights.
I just love Christmas!
My mom really made Christmas special for us while we were growing up and I’ve tried to pass that along to my children.
I grew up in Tampa, Florida. Every Christmas Eve, my mom and daddy would put us kids in the car and drive us down Bayshore Boulevard to see Christmas Card Lane. When we got home, we’d find that yet again, we missed catching Santa…but he’d left all sorts of goodies behind!
For several years now, I have done a BUNCH of baking, made up platters, and gone out on Christmas Eve to deliver them to people I just wanted to say “thanks” to. These are people I wouldn’t normally buy a gift for (and wouldn’t buy a gift for me) but just people I want to remember with a little “thank you.
My Favorite memories of Christmas are cooking with my Mom and Dad in the kitchen the week before Christmas. We would put on our cute Christmas aprons and make every kind of cookie, cake and candy imaginable. We continue this tradition still every year. Hmmm, I can imagine the kitchen’s aroma right now!
Our favorite tradition is to take our four kids out on Christmas Eve in the car and drive all over town looking at the lights and decorations of the houses. Everyone takes a vote on their favorite. Then we go home for cocoa and cookies and a movie before bed. The kids have looked forward to this every year.
Thank you for the contest!
Andrea
When I was little I was always allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. It was my choice of what I wanted to open and I’m not sure how this got started, but I always opened the present from my brother. He’s 9 years older than me and always came up with the coolest gifts.
The Christmas I was 6 we were very poor. My dad had just been discharged from the AF and my parents had tehir 6th child in 8 years. We were living in a small house and barely getting by. Just before Thanksgiving my dad started a new jb at Xerox. A co-worker heard about his 6 children and how my parents were not able to give us a Christmas that year. THey had scrimped to buy us each one small toy from teh local Yellow Front and that was it.
His co-worker took this information to higher ups and sure enough on Christmas eve there was a knock at our door. When my parents opened it there stood Santa and a few of his helpers. They had toys for all 6 of us kids as well as new clothing and a full Christmas dinner. Being I was 6 it was the most magical thing I had ever expreienced. I cling to that memory everytime I see the bell ringers or the stores asking for donations. When possible I do give because of it.
It was not until many years later that I learned the TRUE story of who Santa was or why he was there, but I forever will remember that magical feeling of Santa bringing us Christmas and giving our family something to bleieve in.
I’ve always loved Christmas and everything about it. But when I read this post, the first thing that popped into my head is one memory that I wish I could repeat just one more time.
Every year, my brother and I would help decorate our tree the week before Christmas. And then after it was done, I would go to my beloved Grandparents house and help decorate their tree. Usually it was just me and my grandfather working together while my grandmother was the supervisor who dropped by now and then to offer a comment! I helped my grandfather decorate his tree up until my 20s when I moved to Florida. He was a very special man and it was our special time together. He passed away in 2001 at the age of 93 and my grandmother went 5 months later. It was a really difficult time for me.
Now when I decorate our tree, I use a lot of the ornaments that my grandfather and I used all those years. I even use the tree topper that he used until he went modern and bought a flashy star. lol When I hold those ornaments, it takes me back many years (I’m 52 now) and I feel like that little girl once again helping my Bill Bill decorate the Christmas tree.
I’m sure that there are Christmas trees in heaven and my grandparents are decorating with relatives that I have never met. But one day we’ll all be together again and decorate that tree while Ree Ree once again supervises. I miss them both so very much.
Thanks for the memories.
Hey to Miss Millie! My husband’s grandma, little grammy we call her, who is now 86 years old had a very best friend – we just knew her as Becky. They did EVERYthing together! Little grammy always had great stories to tell about her and Becky’s adventures. Becky had an artificial leg due to diabetes but continued to drive and would drive Little grammy all over the place. We would hear stories about how Becky would be busy gawking at everything, would only take small country roads, and would think nothing of pulling over if something interested her.
Becky was a baker. Becky made wonderful cookies and cakes. She was always making tons of baked goods for local church dinners or for families who needed a little sweetness in their lives. But Becky made the worst pumpkin pie of any I’ve ever tasted. She kept trying but the pumpkin pies were notorious throughout the valley. Everyone knew that Becky was an awesome baker – noone could bake better raisin cookies, apple pies, cherry pies – anything but pumpkin pies!
So enjoy your friend and have a wonderful Thanksgiving from Beth in PA!
I love the cooking and baking part – especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. But my favorite memory happened in 1995. My husbands girls (4 & 5) came to live with us. nfortunately they had been through alot of abuse etc. Anyway – a large company from our area sent Santa for them and gifts to the ceiling. They had never really had Christmas before and to have Santa in our home and gifts and all the food (especially candies and cookies etc.) were more than they could imagine. It was wonderful to see the wonder and awe in their eyes and on their faces. I will never forget it.