Stifflemire’s Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies
Looking for a great cookie recipe? You have found it with Stifflemire’s Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies! This simple, 20-minute recipe creates a batch of delicate, crumbly cookies that are downright heavenly. A family favorite for years, now they can be part of your sweet traditions too!
The Most Irresistible Sugar Cookies
My mother and I are quilters, and we got this recipe from a dear friend in our local quilt guild, Sharon Stifflemire. She has a contagious inner joy that always leaves you smiling. The best recipes often come from friends, passed on through a shared love of something else entirely!
Sharon’s cookies have been the stuff of legend in our family ever since Mama brought the recipe home during my teenage years! They’re similar to a pecan sandy, only more delicate, with a melt-in-your-mouth crumble that’s amazing alongside a cold glass of milk or enjoyed all on their own.
You can whip up a batch of these delicious sugar cookies in just 20 minutes using simple pantry staples. They’re the perfect treat for a last-minute gathering or, you know, just because it’s a Tuesday and you deserve a little something sweet 😉.
Ingredients for Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies
- Solid vegetable shortening (Crisco)
- Vegetable oil
- Powdered sugar
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Cream of tartar (find this in the spice section!)
- Baking soda
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
Can I substitute butter for Crisco?
You totally can, but it’ll change the texture a bit. The Crisco is the secret to that classic crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth feel. If you use butter, they’ll turn out a little crispier and denser.
How To Make Stifflemire’s Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies
1. Preheat the oven
Preheat your oven to 375°F.
2. Mix the wet ingredients & sugars
In a large mixing bowl, place Crisco, powdered sugar, regular sugar, eggs, and vanilla and beat it with an electric mixer until it blends together.
3. Add the dry ingredients
Now add in all the other ingredients and give it a good beating for a minute or two, until the dough’s texture resembles wet sand.
4. Form the dough balls
Scoop the dough into small balls and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Why ungreased?
The dough already has plenty of fat (from the Crisco), so the cookie sheet doesn’t need to be greased. This also helps prevent the cookies from spreading out too much and becoming flat.
You can do this however you want, but I like to use a small cookie dough scoop for this. Make sure they’re spaced out about two inches apart.
5. Flatten the cookies
Place some granulated sugar in a small bowl and dip the bottom of a glass in it. Lightly press down on each cookie. You’re not trying to make pancakes here, just flatten them slightly so the top is no longer mounded!
6. Bake
Bake at 375°F for about 10 minutes, or until the bottom edges are very lightly browned.
7. Cool
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets before removing them. This recipe makes 4-5 dozen. Enjoy!
Want to go all out? Top these cookies with my Royal Icing for Sugar Cookies!
Top Tips for Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies
- Let your ingredients get to room temperature. Let those eggs sit on the counter for a good 15–20 minutes before you start mixing. It just helps everything come together nice and smooth.
- Chill that dough if it gets too soft. If your kitchen’s feeling a bit warm and the dough gets sticky, don’t you fret. Just pop it in the icebox for 20–30 minutes before you start scooping.
- Don’t overbake ’em. These cookies are gonna look underdone when you pull them from the oven – that’s just how they should be! Taking them out when the edges are just barely golden is the secret to a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Storage & Freezer Directions
Store your sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. They also freeze well for up to 2 months. You can also freeze the dough balls and bake straight from frozen, just adding a few minutes to the bake time.
Ingredients
- 1 cup solid vegetable shortening such as Crisco
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla I use 1.5 teaspoons, I like vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375℉.
- In large mixing bowl place shortening, oil, sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Beat with an electric mixer until well combined. Add all dry ingredients and beat again until very well blended and a dough is formed.
- Roll dough into 1-inch balls or use a cookie dough scoop. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.
- Using a glass with a flat bottom, dip the glass into a little bit of granulated sugar and then lightly press down the top of each cookie (dipping in sugar again before each one) to flatten the tops a bit.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the bottom edges.
You are hilarious. I read your recipes from top to bottom just to get tickled even if i’m not Keeping it. Please don’t stop with your comments. Will try these cookies as my hubby likes pecan sandies and I will put ground pecans in them.
This is me exactly! Even if I don’t keep the recipes I read the entire thing. I love Christy’s posts. 🙂
Me, too.
Y’all have no idea how much this means to me, thank you!!!!
These look delicious!! I’ll be making these in a week and a half and I’ll have to take a picture for ya – I’ll be visiting my daughter for 6 weeks…on the beach…in Hawaii!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll have to take a table and all the ingredients down to the beach for their photo-op!!! Want to join me for a week or two?
These sound delicious. Can you tell me if they are soft or hard?
Neither. Lol. They feel like a hard cookie holding them but the grain is very delicate, which is why they melt in your mouth 🙂
could you use butter instead of crisco
It will most likely work fine but I’ve never done it so please report back 🙂
Using butter will result in a crispier cookie. Shortening produces a softer product.
I have been making this cookie recipe for many, many years! (Like maybe 40+!) However, the difference is that ours are made with butter instead of crisco. They are wonderfully tender and crispy! I let them bake until golden brown on the edges because that gives them an even better flavor! Yum!
My mom has this recipe and has made them for years. We use butter instead of the shortening but you may have to add extra flour to make the dough stiff enough. When I make them, I use the cookie press to make pretty designs, especially when giving for gifts.
Sugar cookies! OH how that takes me back! I just have to go make these now! My parents had me when they were older, so they retired when I was just starting high school. When I was 16 they started going off to Florida for 6 months, leaving in November. Yeah…different times, eh? I used to bake sugar cookies to make the house smell and feel like “home” when I was lonely, and other simple, sweet things as well, raiding my mother’s baking cupboard and her cookbook, but sugar cookies were my VERY favourite. They were my comfort with a big ol’ glass of milk curled up in bed with my teddy bears.
My family sure was different from your charming bunch. It makes me feel SO good to read about your life and all the fun you have with your friends and cooking. I adore the way you sort of talk-write. Your blog is my favourite. I look forward to finding to seeing new posts in my inbox every day. All grown up now, kids already grown, and my home is my altar for all that I hold most precious, and good food cookin’ in the kitchen is my way of praying and giving thanks for all that I have been graced with in life. Blessings to you my darling!
I have so much I want to say but need to wait until I’m sitting at my computer so I can type. This phone is ridiculous for longer thoughts 😉
Sounds like a good recipe will make some for Super Bowl Sunday. I especially like your “new technique” Now that’s my kind of strategy! Thanks
These look great! Do you think using colored sanding sugar to press down with would work? I thought maybe pink or red for Valentine’s Day.
That would be beautiful!!!