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 incredibly kind folks at King Arthur flour are going to give one of my reader’s their very own Cookie Companion!All you have to do to enter is post in the comments your favorite Holiday memory or activity. It can be a one line post or a few paragraphs, whichever you prefer! In one week, I will choose a number at random and the poster of the corresponding comment will win this fabulous cookbook in time for holiday baking!
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.
You’ll need: unsalted butter, sugar, brown sugar, light corn syrup, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt, egg, all purpose flour, and decorating sugars for coating.
The original recipe also calls for 1/4 tsp nutmeg or 1/4 tsp lemon oil and states that it is optional. I don’t know why I’ve never liked nutmeg, but I’ve always left it out whenever it was called for or substituted cinnamon. In this case, I just left it out. I don’t have lemon oil so I left that out as well. I tend to not buy anything that I don’t normally have on hand anyway. I just don’t like to buy things for one use because….well mainly because I am cheap. But then again y’all already know that by all of the great value brand items you see in the pic!
I want to apologize for not using King Arthur Flour in this! I always use King Arthur when making yeast breads and it has been proven to be a superior flour than others. I love King Arthur, but don’t always get to the store that sells a good selection to buy it! Hey, I DID buy real butter for this recipe though! (Don’t tell on me, but I usually just use margarine…shh!)
Place butter in bowl.
Now folks, from here on out you will be seeing me make a DOUBLE version of this recipe. However, the recipe at the bottom is for a single version. Y’all know me..if three dozen is good, six dozen is GREAT!
Add in white and brown sugar as well as light corn syrup.
~insert tangent here~
We always use Karo brand corn syrup. My daughter’s name is Katy Rose and that has become her nickname as well. I do get strange looks when I’m out and talking to my Karo though…
Hey, Southerners are known for nicknaming everyone they love. I think I’ve mentioned my nickname ages ago but for those of you who missed it…
My entire family calls me “Poochie”, and I even answer to it. My friend, Michael, has always called me that as well. (Michael says I do not talk about him enough on here…Michael Romine – teaches Marketing to high school students – in high school he was like 6’4″ and weighed about eighty pounds soaking wet. I called him string bean then 🙂 Feeling the love now, Michael?)
Anyway, I got my nickname when my brother came to see me after I was born in the hospital. He took one look at me, spit on me, and said I was ugly and looked like a Poochie Dog. Only in the south would that moment offer up a nickname considered a term of endearment!
Add vanilla.
Add eggs…
Mix that up well.
Add in flour.
You should probably do this gradually but I have the patience of a gnat so I just dump it all in at once.
Mix that up well…until it looks like this!
If you don’t take a pinch of this to taste you aren’t living, this dough is heavenly!
Have one of your kids dump the entire bottle of red sprinkles into a bowl.
They’ll think this is cool. They think they don’t get to dump things out enough.
Add the green as well and stir. Or have them stir..I’m using my son for this because Karo is taking a nap.
Brady said to be sure and show y’all this and to tell you that it is a smiley face, just in case you couldn’t tell. 🙂
Preheat your oven to 375 and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Roll dough into one inch balls…or one inch-ish.
and then let your kidders roll them in the sugars.
like this. 🙂
Place about two inches or so apart on a cookie sheet.
Like this.
Bake for ten minutes and then remove.
Let cool on cookie sheet for five minutes and then remove to cooling racks (or platters) to continue cooling.
My grandmother’s best friend, Miss Millie, called my mother to tell her I had gotten my nails done and they looked “so pretty”! ~laughs~ Thanks, Millie! I decided to treat myself. Miss Millie is my second grandmother and she reads Southern Plate every day!
Y’all say “Hi” to Miss Millie in your comments!
Chewy Sugar Cookies
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.
1/4tspnutmeg or 1/4 tsp lemon oiloptional, your choice - I left both of these out
1 1/2tspbaking powder
1/2tspbaking soda
1/2tspsalt
1large egg
2 1/2cupsunbleachedall purpose flour
1/4cupcoarse or granulated sugarfor 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.
A new tradition I am going to start this year is to buy a tablecloth, good quiality white or light colored tablecloth and use it as a “sign in book” of sorts. Every year, everyone who attends Thanksgiving and X-Mas signs the cloth with a fabric pen and then get someone who knows how to sew to embroider the names and the year so you have a running “sign in book” of all your family, friends and guests to your holiday parties.
My favorite memory is the year I was 16…I had been pretty bad that year and when we got up Christmas morning my sisters had all kinds of stuff. I had nothing..not that I deserved anything. But my Dad kept insisting I go through my stocking even though I really didn’t want to. Well, in the bottom…CAR KEYS! I bout passed out.
I think my absolute favorite memory was the first Christmas we had with our new baby girl! She wasn’t even a month old. Every Christmas that we can spend together with family is special!
My favorite Christmas memory is picking out an ornament for each of my children. Every year they get a new ornament, hopefully one that depicts their year or accomplishments, or interests. They always look forward to what I have chosen for them. The hope is that when they leave home they will have a set of ornaments to decorate their very own Christmas tree.
We were teenagers when Momma decided to start baking cookies. Momma is the Microwave Queen. So this really took us all by surprise. She kept doubling and tripling the recipes because she said it didn’t make that much. She had 7-8 different recipes she wanted to make.
We wound up with so many cookies that Our entire chirstmas gift list was sick of them and we still had leftovers for a month! I smile when I think of it.
One of my favorite memories is filling up a thermos with hot cocoa, and heading out for an evening drive to see all the Christmas lights. I remember as a kid looking at all the twinkling lights with awe and wonder. I still go out with my son and still have the same sense of awe.
and the The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook
. Ready for the exciting news? 
A new tradition I am going to start this year is to buy a tablecloth, good quiality white or light colored tablecloth and use it as a “sign in book” of sorts. Every year, everyone who attends Thanksgiving and X-Mas signs the cloth with a fabric pen and then get someone who knows how to sew to embroider the names and the year so you have a running “sign in book” of all your family, friends and guests to your holiday parties.
My favorite memory is the year I was 16…I had been pretty bad that year and when we got up Christmas morning my sisters had all kinds of stuff. I had nothing..not that I deserved anything. But my Dad kept insisting I go through my stocking even though I really didn’t want to. Well, in the bottom…CAR KEYS! I bout passed out.
My favorite memory is reading the night before Christmas every Christmas eve. We continued it with my kids too.
I can’t wait to try the sugar cookies! My kids will love them! 🙂 Sonya
I think my absolute favorite memory was the first Christmas we had with our new baby girl! She wasn’t even a month old. Every Christmas that we can spend together with family is special!
My favorite Christmas memory is picking out an ornament for each of my children. Every year they get a new ornament, hopefully one that depicts their year or accomplishments, or interests. They always look forward to what I have chosen for them. The hope is that when they leave home they will have a set of ornaments to decorate their very own Christmas tree.
We were teenagers when Momma decided to start baking cookies. Momma is the Microwave Queen. So this really took us all by surprise. She kept doubling and tripling the recipes because she said it didn’t make that much. She had 7-8 different recipes she wanted to make.
We wound up with so many cookies that Our entire chirstmas gift list was sick of them and we still had leftovers for a month! I smile when I think of it.
Brittainy S
One of my favorite memories is filling up a thermos with hot cocoa, and heading out for an evening drive to see all the Christmas lights. I remember as a kid looking at all the twinkling lights with awe and wonder. I still go out with my son and still have the same sense of awe.