Sugar, Sugar

This is the story of a competitive cookie.

Once upon a time (in my previous post) I told of my longing for a white, chewy, sugar cookie. The ideal cookie is in my head and I usually know that if I tap my resources from America’s Test Kitchen, I can usually come close to perfection. Truth be told, I was a bit bummed when my ATK cookbook came up with nothing. I guess it wasn’t so complete after all. Oh, well. I’d move on.

So when I came across the Cooking with the Cast segment of the ATK Feed website and saw “Make Chewy Sugar Cookies with Bridget” that included a photo submission challenge that would win a DVD set, I was excited (but, seriously, why hadn’t I checked online for the recipe earlier?). And while I really wanted that DVD set, I knew that even if I didn’t win, Bridget would have at least seen my picture and my name. A brush with one of my favorite TV personalities is always a good thing in my book! So how would I make my entry stand out?

Playing off of Bridget’s post of the recipe, that this sugar cookie is the Miss Congeniality of the cookie world, I set to work. I’d make half of the cookies exactly as the recipe said, but then I’d add my own little twist on the second half.

This is how the first word-for-word rendition came out. Simple, beautiful. Not so memorable. Then came time for the fun…

 

Growing up, it seemed that my parents could make anything “special” and “fancy” with sprinkles (or confettis, as we called the rainbow non-pareils). Vanilla ice cream. Peanut butter bread. I don’t think they ever tried it on beef roast or mashed potatoes or peas, but hmmm… it might have helped! In college I used to fill a bowl with sprinkles and dip my soft-serve ice cream cone — cafeteria food wasn’t all bad. It didn’t help my waistline, but it did help ease the pain of bad rehearsals! So, tipping my hat to what I know best, this is Miss Congeniality dressing for the pageant...

 

 

 

The recipe is refreshingly simple (but you don’t have to tell anyone that little secret if you don’t want to). And even though we didn’t win the tiara (or the DVDs), these cookies were fun to make (my daughter had a blast rolling dough balls in sprinkles). They were delicious and exactly what I had been looking for in a sugar cookie! (They also got me singing lyrics from The Archies on and off for two weeks.) To top it off, we made Bridget’s runners-up list. Pretty cool. And everyone lived happily ever after. 🙂 The end.

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Chewy Sugar Cookies

from America’s Test Kitchen

Makes 2 dozen cookies

The final dough will be slightly softer than most cookie dough. For the best results, handle the dough as briefly and gently as possible when shaping the cookies. Overworking the dough will result in flatter cookies.

• 2¼ cups (11¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 1½ cups (10½ ounces) sugar, plus ⅓ cup for rolling
• 2 ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
• 6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in large bowl. Place remaining ⅓ cup sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later). Whisk in oil until incorporated. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms.
3. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 tablespoons each (or use #40 portion scoop). Using hands, roll dough into balls. Working in batches, roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet, 12 dough balls per sheet. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle tops evenly with 4 teaspoons of sugar remaining in shallow dish (2 teaspoons per tray), discarding any remaining sugar.
4. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Brown Sugar Is Beautiful

I’ve been on a cookie craze for the past few weeks. It didn’t necessarily mesh with the high heat and humidity we’d been experiencing until this past week, but it certainly proved useful for things like church picnics, afternoon snacks, and camping trips.

I was also in the mood to try something new. My cookie repertoire tends to get stuck in a rut. Chocolate chip ranks as #1 in our house followed by oatmeal raisin cookies. I was in the mood for a good chewy molasses cookie, but I’ve been out of molasses for a couple of months and continue to forget to put it on the shopping list. So, what about a sugar cookie? I wanted one that would be chewy–not crumbly and crisp like most of the recipes I have turn out.

I turned to my first reference, my Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook (2001-2010) and came up with nothing in the way of that white, sugar-coated, chewy cookie I was looking for (more on that later). However, leading the troops on p. 458, there was a brown sugar cookie recipe whose description summarized a desire for a cookie that, “like Mick Jagger, would scream ‘brown sugar’.” Hmmm… Intrigued? I was!

Think about it: when I say “chocolate chip cookie”, you can taste it. Peanut butter cookie. Molasses. Sugar. Oatmeal raisin. (Would you like a glass of milk?) But then I say “brown sugar cookie.” I don’t know about you, but I drew a blank. I know what brown sugar tastes like, but how would that translate into a cookie? Too sweet? Too bland? But never one to shirk at trying a new baking recipe just to see if it’s good, I thought I’d try it. And, as always, I figured it couldn’t be horrible if it came from my friends at ATK.

This is not your ordinary cookie recipe, and it requires a couple of additional steps that some might consider laborious, but I’ve learned that you don’t doubt the steps of an ATK recipe. And it isn’t difficult. After making the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie which utilizes a similar process, the technique was not unfamiliar. It involves browning butter and then a bit of waiting for the butter to cool versus the “whisk and wait” in the chocolate chip cookies (which are totally worth the extra minutes, let me tell you!). There’s lots of brown sugar and a whopping tablespoon of vanilla. Yum.

Let’s face it–this isn’t a bedazzling cookie. Humble, perhaps. Makes you think of something from “back in the olden days”, right? But remember: looks can be deceiving. Case in point: I had a lot of cookies left after our church picnic, so I sent some of these home with my mother-in-law. When I saw her the next week, she asked, “What were those cookies? I assumed they were ginger snaps [which she doesn’t really care for] and after a few days figured, Fine. I’ll try one. But they’re really good!” 

Bolder than a sugar cookie, reminiscent of a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate, and lacking the bite of a molasses or ginger cookie, these cookies are hard to resist. They’d be awesome with a layer of good vanilla bean ice cream sandwiched between two of them. Beautiful.

And wouldn’t you know it, about a week after making these, I found the “Make Chewy Sugar Cookies with Bridget” on the America’s Test Kitchen Feed website. But that’s another story for another day… 🙂

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Brown Sugar Cookies

from America’s Test Kitchen

• 14 Tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups packed (14 oz.) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1. Melt 10 Tbsp. of the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling the pan constantly until the butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer the browned butter to a large heatproof bowl. Stir the remaining 4 Tbsp. butter into the hot butter to melt; set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a shallow baking dish or pie plate, mix 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and the granulated sugar, rubbing the mixture between your fingers until well combined; set aside. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Add the remaining 1 3/4 cups brown sugar and the salt to the bowl with the cooled butter; mix until no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula; add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scraped down the bowl. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined, about 1 minute. Give the dough a final stir to ensure that no flour pockets remain and the ingredients are evenly distributed.
4. Divide the dough into 24 portions, each about 2 Tbsp., rolling them between your hands into balls 12 dough balls into the baking dish with the sugar mixture and toss to coat. Set the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart; repeat with the second batch of 12.
5. Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies are browned and still puffy and the edges have begun to set but the centers are still soft (the cookies will look raw between the cracks and seem underdone), 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the bakign time. Do not overbake.
6. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.