Fisk Family Sugar Cookies

(Recipe below - scroll down if you're impatient! This was written last year for a recipe submission somewhere...hence the lengthy story preceding the recipe. Hey, I know I talk too much....sorry.)

My family’s favorite Christmas cookie has always been sugar cookies, but when I first tasted the cookies other people called “sugar cookies” I was astounded. They were pretty, sweet and buttery, but hard, crunchy and not remotely like what my mother made. My mother got this recipe from her friend Doris, and they made hundreds of cookies on their annual Cookie Day. So this is really an Otte family recipe (see below), adopted by the Baumgartens and now the-sugar-cookie-of-choice for the Fisk Families.

In early December, Doris packed up boxes of ingredients, cookie sheets, mixing bowls, kids and headed for our house (they alternated kitchens each year). The entire day was spent baking Christmas cookies of every kind – new recipes were tried, but these were the staples: Pfeffernusse (the German classic), Chocolate Chews (rolled in powdered sugar), Thumbprint Cookies (rolled in nuts, with jam or frosting filling the thumbprint divot), Krumkake (cooked in a special round iron on top of the stove, then rolled around a tapered, wood rod), Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Drop Cookies (densely chocolate, frosted with fudgey frosting and a pecan half on top), Peanut Butter Stars (using old fashioned chocolate star candies),  Chocolate-dotted Peppermint Kisses (meringue with chocolate chips), Peanut Butter Fingers (squeezed through a cookie press, the ends dipped in frosting, then chopped nuts), Rosettes (deep-fried on special irons, then gently coated with sugar), Apricot Bars (tart and sweet), Coconut Bars (a simple variation of the ubiquitous graham cracker crusted sweetened condensed milk concoctions, topped with pure semi-sweet chocolate chips), Fruitcake Squares (one of the Eagle Brand Milk © variations),Good Bars (a dense, chewy oatmeal bar covered with a layer of peanut butter melted with butterscotch chips), Fudge Nut Bars (thick, chewy with more chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk), Spritz (buttery, shortbread from the cookie press) and Darrel’s Sugar Cookies (Darrel was Doris’s husband and the sugar cookie recipe came from his mother, Clara Otte.)

The evening was spent frosting and decorating the sugar cookies. In the early days, they were artistic and outrageously creative, using tweezers to place the correct colored decors in just the right places. That ended the year a two-year-old pulled a tray of completed cookies onto the floor! But we kids got to help squeeze bows onto bells and eyes onto angels.

At the end of the day, which lasted into the evening and included making dinner for their husbands and children, they split a couple thousand cookies and headed home. The cookies were used as gifts – for school teachers, the mailman, the pastor, neighbors and the many “shut-ins” my mother visited. Packed onto paper plates or into small boxes, they were a welcome treat and a way for my cash-strapped mother to give to many, many people at Christmas.

We also ate them. Christmas Eve supper was always oyster stew, jello and Christmas Cookies. After church, we opened presents and were allowed to eat as many as we wanted all evening.

As a young wife and mother, I continued the Cookie Day tradition in my own kitchen, although I baked alone, over several days. Sugar Cookies were always my husband and children’s favorite. Now my daughter makes them for her husband and their friends and my daughter-in-law has learned the “right way” to make sugar cookies for my son.

Darrel’s Sugar Cookies

2 c sugar
1 c butter
1 c sour cream
3 eggs 
1 tsp soda
½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
Flour, enough to roll (about 3 cups)

Cream sugar and butter together until well mixed. Add sour cream and eggs and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and one cup of the flour. Mix then continue to add flour until dough is stiff, but not dry. Cover and chill for at least an hour. To roll, scoop out a manageable amount onto a floured board and pat flat. Do NOT knead. If dough is sticky, work in a little more flour. Use a floured rolling pin and gently roll out to 3/8”-1/4” thick.

Metal cookie cutters work best – these cookies will puff slightly when baked, so the plastic cutters with designs will not work well, and cookie dough will stick in them. Dip cookie cutters into flour before each cut and using a metal spatula gently place cookies onto cool cookie sheets. Leave at least ½” space between cookies, as they will expand just a bit.

Bake at 350-375º for 8 minutes. Don’t let them get brown! Cool on racks and frost.

If they start to brown at the edges, they are overdone. Cookies should be baked, but not browned – the perfect cookie will be only slightly golden brown on the bottom, tender and soft. Be gentle with them! Cool and frost with a basic powdered sugar frosting, adding coloring and other decorations as desired.

The dough is sweet and delicious before and after it’s baked - my brother always tried to eat as much of the raw dough as he could sneak - and as many unfrosted ones as he could grab. But the BIG SECRET of these cookies involves the process.(Disclaimer: raw dough has raw eggs, which is technically not safe to eat. Be warned!)

1) Not TOO much flour – just enough so the dough is thick enough to roll out. It will be slightly sticky, hence the chilling step. Re-roll the scraps to cut more cookies, the dough will get easier to work with, but also begins to toughen. Too much flour makes crunchy cookies!

2) Roll them out THICK – 3/8” is good.

3) Don’t over-bake. 8 minutes means 8 minutes!

4) They are DONE if just barely tanning on the bottom. If they get brown around the edges you have gone too far.

5) These cookies freeze well, but be sure they are cool before stacking. If you frost, then freeze, the colors may bleed a bit, but they'll still taste fine.

Powdered Sugar Frosting

2 Tbl. butter
2 Tbl. milk
½-1 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar (2 lb. package)
Food coloring as desired

In saucepan, melt butter with milk. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar until of spreading consistency, beating well with spoon to remove lumps. Frosting dries out, so add milk a few drops at a time if needed to keep it spreadable. Cream or half & half makes it richer and it stays a little softer, if you like that sort of thing.