MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I MADE IT!!! Day 24 and 25 in one post!

I want to end on the best recipes in my book.

We all have a recipe that brings us back to a single moment in our childhood that makes you smile from ear to ear. You want to close your eyes tightly and hold on to that image for just a few moments longer.  This is my recipe.

When I was a kid I knew I loved to bake, and I knew it came from the generations of wonderful women who had come before me. My mother, the baker supreme. She does it all, and always has.  My mom and I are quite the duo in the kitchen, she does this and I do that. We have learned this perfect baking dance to make it through holidays in our small family kitchen. I really don’t know what we would ever do with a larger kitchen.

My grandmother, she makes everything. My favorite thing is to sit with her at the kitchen table and tumb through old cookbooks of hand written recipe cards.  They are yellowed and fading, but they are where I find my best inspiration.  Anytime I find something new, my grandma takes out a pad and makes a copy for me. Her handwriting is much more elegant than mine.

And then there was a my great grandmother, she has since left us, but still very much with me every time I bake. Especially this recipe. I remember watching her wrinkled hands roll out the dough, then pick up a cookie and blow it off.  I would always ask, “Grandma, why are you spitting on the cookies?”.  She would laugh and then allow me to blow away the excess flour. I am pretty sure I was the one spitting on the cookies, not her.

I make these cookies every year, I have perfected it. Perfected the look and feel of the dough. I know that sounds super silly, but to me this is that recipe, makes me smile every time I think about it, make it, or devour one of the cookies.

The dough for these cookies is very soft and needs a lot of flour kneaded in before the dough is rolled out. So start with a floured surface and then cover the dough with flour.

 

Knead the flour into the dough until the dough is firm but still stickily when you stick your finger into it. Roll out.

 

 

After cutting out your cookies and placing on baking sheets, bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  You want the cookies to spring back to touch, but not browning. The cookies are best if they do not brown, nice and soft!

I average 4-5 batches of these cookies every Christmas to meet the need of the demand in my family.  Some plain, others with sprinkles, red hots or frosting.  You can make these however you would like.

 

 

This is the cookie I plan to eat… I am a san-frosting girl 🙂

 

 

I hope you enjoy cookie number 24. They are amazing, truly the best cookies on the block!

 

 

Grandma’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

recipe from the collection of Great Grandma Silbernick

yields 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on shapes

• 1 cup margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups flour + 3-4 for rolling cookies
• sugar sprinkles or candy red hots (optional)

1. In large mixing bowl, cream together margarine, and sugar with an elexctric mixer.  Add eggs and sour cream; continue mixing.
2. Sift in flour, baking powder, and baking soda; continue mxing.  The batter will be slightly thicker than cake mix.
3. To roll out you will need several additional cups of flour. Start with a clean work space, and sift 1 cup flour on to work space in a large circle (about the size of a 9″ round baking pan). Next, scope 1/3 of cookie batter onto floured surface.  Sift more flour over top of dough, lightly.
4. Begin kneading flour into dough.  Add more flour if needed but only 1/8 cup at a time.  You will want a slightly firm dough but do not want to add too much flour. You will want your dough to roll out just past the point it doesn’t  sticking to your work space.  You should be able to stick your finger into the dough and it will be stickly, but when you roll it out it does not stick (too much flour will dry these out, and too little will leave them doughy when baked).  The dough will be softer than a normal sugar cookie dough. Roll out dough to desired thickness, normally 1/8″- 1/4″. The cookie will puff slightly while baking.
5. Once rolled out, lightly brush flour accross the surface of your dough. Cut out any shape cookie, using a flour coated cookie cutter.  After every cut, twist your cookie cutter in flour to re-coat. The excess dough on the cookie cutter will help the flour stick.
6. Pick each cookie up and pass between each hand to brush off excess flour.  Lightly blow away large amounts of flour.
7. Place on baking sheets. Add sugar sprinkles or red hots to cookies, press lightly to adhere to cookies.
8. Pull together scraps of dough and re-roll out, repeating steps 5-7.  Once finished, start at step 3 again for remaining 2/3 of dough.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 mins, or until cookie springs back to touch. You do not want these cookies to brown.
10. Remove from pans imediately and cool on tin foil.
11. Store in air tight container.  Frost if desired.

**These cookies freeze very well stored in an air tight contianer.

DAY 25: Date Sugar Cookies

Here is my FINALE! I wanted to end my 25 Days of Cookies with my great grandmothers sugar cookies, but these require that you know the sugar cookie recipe, so I thought I would give them to you at the same time. Just how generous I am 🙂

My favorite bakery makes these cookies and every time I go there, I always buy a dozen for me and a dozen for my mom. I never have plans to share these so I must make sure we both have our own stash to eat from.  I have even converted The Boy to loving these cookies. Which in turn means my dozen has turned into 6 cookies…. I think I need to rethink my actions.

I decided that since this bakery is now a hour and a half from my house, I needed to learn to make these on my own.  I think my attempt has been pretty successful.

I made these half way through baking my sugar cookies and they were a perfect way to end my baking.  I pulled these out of the oven and poured myself a nice mug of coffee.

 

Relaxation.

 

Cookie 25 complete!!

 

 

Date Sugar Cookies

yields 3 dozen

• 1/2 batch Grandma’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
• 8 oz box of dates, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Prepare a batch of Grandma’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies recipe, above.
2. In a small saucepan, add dates, sugar and water.  Bring to a boil and turn down to low. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until dates reduce and become a paste.
3. Remove dates from heat and stir in vanilla.  Allow date filling to cool.
4. Roll out dough according to instructions for Grandma’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies.  Cut out large circles and place on parchment covered baking sheets.
5. Drop 1 teaspoon date filling in the center of each cookie.  Folder cookie over date filling and press edge to seal.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until cookie springs back to touch on the edges. Do not allow tops to become brown.
7. Store in airtight container.