Chewy Sugar Cookies
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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 and the The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook. Ready for the exciting news?
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.
Ingredients
- 3/4 Cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
- 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.
Nutrition
Cookbooks make me weak in the knees. I am surrounded by them in every room in my house.
My holiday tradition is pretty . . . well, traditional. I bake ALOT! And I make an enormous dinner while we listen to Christmas music. Then at the end of the day, I’m completely wiped out!
I remember my grandmother making pie crusts for holiday pies when I was little. She would let me drag up a chair and “help”. I got my own little ball of dough that I got to roll out by myself. When I was done basically playing with it, she would let me sprinkle on some sugar and cinnamon, then she would bake my very own little “pie” for me to eat.
A lot of my memories are tied to food – what does that say about me? LOL
(Hi Miss Millie!)
My favorite Christmas memory is always going to my grandparents house and our entire family would come over on Christmas Eve and we’d just enjoy spending time together. My grandparents have now passed on and I miss them dearly.
Every Christmas we bake cookies then we go and look at Christmas lights. It is always exciting to see who has the best house!
My favorite Christmas memories are of when my girls were little and how excited they were on Christmas Day, that always made my heart feel full…
Brenda
bvdragonlady1@aol.com
My favorite holiday memory was the first year I was at college. A bunch of my friends weren’t going to get to go home for the holidays that year, and had crappy dorm food to look forward to.
So I invited everyone over to my apartment for a Christmas party and dinner. Now, I’d never been what you’d call the most ‘domestic’ person, and my friends didn’t believe I could boil water. In truth, I could bake, but I’d never really cooked a meal in my life, much less a turkey! Nonetheless, I spent a week figuring out what to do, and putting things together. (Reynolds Turkey bags are lifesavers…)
We had a great party, watched Rudolph (hey, you have your traditions, I have mine – watch it every year.), and had dinner. They were all shocked at the food. The really funny part to me was that I had just moved into the apartment, and it was my first one. I had a TV, a Christmas tree, and that was all that was in the living room besides pillows. We sat around, ate sitting on pillows in the floor, and had a grand old time!
I got told later that they raved about the party, and that I’d saved their Christmas. That to me was the best part of all!!!
PS – Hi, Miss Millie!
I think all the cookies and baking is the thing that makes it Christmas for me. My Mom and Nana taught me to bake Christmas cookies which I still do every year, hundreds of them for everyone. I am like you and can pour over a new cookbook for hours just dreaming about the results.
I am really enjoying your website not only the recipes but the stories as well. My husbands family is from the South and it is a new and fascinating perspective that I have never seen before and I am finding that I love it. Thanks for sharing not only the recipes, which I love, but yourself and your family.
Elizabeth