So here’s the situation. When you go searching for a good sugar cookie recipe, 9 times out of 10 your search engine or cookbook is going to provide you with a nice rolled sugar cookie recipe. You know, the kind you can cut out into shapes and then decorate all pretty?
Don’t get me wrong – there is a time and a place for these. For example, the F*ck Boy Cookies. But sometimes, this is just not the kind of sugar cookie I am looking for.
Sometimes I just want a soft and thick and chewy sugar cookie with a nice coating of coarse sugar on the outside. A sugar cookie where I don’t have to wait for the dough to chill just so I have to roll the dough back out and cut it into shapes. Is this too much to ask?!
Apparently not – because I figured out a way to make that happen. And they taste a whole LOT better than any cut out sugar cookie ever did.
Want to know the secret?
Great. I’ll tell you.
The addition of shortening creates the perfect texture for ultimate pillowy cookie goodness. And an extra sprinkle of coarse sugar granules as the cookies come out of the oven give them a nice crunchy top coating usually lost when initial sugar coating bakes.
BUT, the real secret to these bad boys is in the butter – browned butter.
This step is not necessarily needed – you will still get amazing cookies with good old fashioned room temperature butter. But the browning of the butter takes these cookies to the next level. They go from great cookies to…you do a HAPPY DANCE every time you take a bite because they are THAT FREAKING GOOD.
And who doesn’t want to do a happy dance every time they eat cookies?! I know I do.
Happy Baking!
SOFT AND CHEWY SUGAR COOKIES WITH A SECRET INGREDIENT
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 cup large granule sugar for rolling and topping
Instructions
- Place butter in a small sauce pan. Place on medium heat. Allow butter to melt, swirling pan occasionally.
- Once the butter gives off a nutty aroma, or you can see brown bits at the bottom of the pan, remove the pan from the heat.
- Transfer butter to a heat proof bowl scrapping all the brown bits off the bottom.
- Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix shortening, butter and sugar together.
- Add vanilla extract and eggs. Mix until combined.
- Add flour, cream or tartar, baking soda and salt. Mix on slow speed until just combined.
- Place 1/2 cup of large granule sugar in a small bowl.
- Using a medium (5cm) cookie scoop, scoop out a dough ball. Roll dough ball in large granule sugar and place on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies begin to crack on top.
- Remove from oven and add another sprinkle of the large granule sugar on top of each cookie.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet.
Why in the world has NO ONE reviewed these yet?!?
These are by far the absolute BEST sugar cookie I have EVER eaten in my life! I cant believe I made it…lol
I have made these a total of 3 times in the past couple weeks, the first time I followed the recipe to a T and it was perfect and delicious! This time, the only shortening I had was the 1 cup sticks that crisco makes. So I doubled the recipe to be able to use the whole stick. We used the medium cookie scoop and the kids and their friends had them devoured – the whole double batch in 3 days!
I thought those are so fantasic and perfect, I will buy a tub of shortening so I can make them more often and for cheaper…well, Im not sure if it was the store brand shortening that I bought, or the struggle I had trying to measure that messy stuff, lol but that batch was not nearly as yummy as the original batch. You could taste the shortening in the cookie and it just tasted a bit off. Where as the first time I made them I couldn’t taste the shortening at all flavor-wise, it just enhanced the cookie texture wise. So I truely reccomend and urge that if you use the tub of store brand shortening, and you are NOT a fan of these cookies…Try them again with Crisco or another well known brand in your area (personally, I will only be using the Crisco sticks from now on, lol cause it eliminates any user error on my end).
That leads us to this week, when I made the absolute BEST batch of the 3 batches…with the only difference to the recipe being this time I used Mexican vanilla that is $1.68 on amazon. When I made this batch, we did a Quadruple recipe, so I did two sticks of the Crisco and we used the mexican vanilla – but my kiddo accidently used 5 teaspoons instead of the 4 teaspoons it should have been. But it worked out in the end, and made the cookies taste even better then the first time – which I didnt think was possible cause they were the bomb!
The final batch, we opted to used the #20 3.2 Tbs cookie scoop – cause with a Quadruple batch I was hoping it would go faster, and we scooped out 65 large balls of the cookie dough. We froze majority of them in an airtight container, and baked a batch up immediately (in our oven, the larger scoops took 15 mins). As we were ready to make cookies throughout the week, we put the frozen dough on the baking mat lined pan and let them start to thaw while the oven heated up to 350° and then we put the pan in the oven to bake, we baked it roughly 2-3 mins longer then when they were not frozen.
Using the larger sized cookie scoops this time, made the end result cookie a nice thick and chewy cookie, with the edges being just a little bit harder then the middle, while still being soft and good size diameter.
So, the larger scoop, using the premeasured crisco brand shortening sticks, and using the mexican vanilla blend extract – plus a tad bit extra vanilla thanks to my helper, were the tiny tweeks we made that turned an already AMAZING cookie recipe absolutely addictive! My kids and all their friends have been asking to make more, so that is our plan for this weekend. Making 2 or 3 Quadruple batches of these cookies.
Thank you SO MUCH Lindsay! You are an AMAZING baker and so creative to have come up with such a Fantasic recipe!! Im now going to see what other recipe secrets your site holds!!
This might be the best comment of all time! You just made my week! And I am so gad to hear you love these cookies as much as I do 🙂 I will also have to try some Mexican Vanilla!