My childhood home is just down the street from a bakery, and I have vivid memories of my late grandpa driving me to middle school every morning and I insisting on stopping at the bakery for a bagel toasted with butter. Since my grandpa had quite the sweet tooth (and had a big soft spot for his grandkids), he would take me and get himself either a brownie, or a sugar cookie while we were there. Mind you, this is at 7:00 in the morning, but my grandpa could never turn down a chance for something sweet. He has been gone for awhile now, but anytime I make sugar cookies or brownies, I can almost see him in the drivers seat of his old car, happily eating his cookie in one hand and holding the wheel with the other.
Now as far as sugar cookies go, I like my cut-out cookies to be a bit more subtle in its flavors, where drop cookies I'm looking for more of a buttery, sugary, decadent taste. I always found drop cookies a bit harder to get right. They either come out too puffy, too cakey, too dry, or taste too sweet for my liking, and I could never figure out how all the bakeries I've been to have gotten their cookies to come out just right. Until today! I finally created a recipe that I fully believe can stand up to your favorite bakery sugar cookie, and there are a few key things that made a huge difference for me.
#1: Adding an extra egg yolk. Eggs are essential to the texture of your cookie, and add the extra egg yolk yields a chewier, softer cookie overall.
#2: Baking powder AND baking soda. Lots of recipes call for one or the other, or if using both, they put a bit more of one than the other. Both help the spread and rise of the cookie as well as the texture, and I found that adding an equal amount of baking powder and soda created a cookie that was soft, chewy and just thick enough without being cake like.
#3: Using salted butter, specifically Whole Foods 365 organic salted butter sticks. Now I can already hear the shrieks from bakers across the globe at using salted butter in sugar cookies but I promise you, for this recipe the salted butter really helps to enhance the vanilla and sugar. When using salted butter, it can be hard to control how much salt your putting into the dough, and different brands of butter put varying amounts of salt making it hard to know how each batch of cookies will come out. I only had salted butter on hand for my first few batches, and I was shocked at how delicious they were and how bright all the flavors seemed. I've since made them with unsalted butter and they came out great as well, but I generally stick to salted butter. Find a brand that you really like and stick with it so you always have an idea of the salt amount. Another reason the cookies flavor profile is so buttery yet fresh is because:
#4: I use lemon extract in place of the traditional almond extract. Personally, almond extract can be a bit overpowering, but when doing my research most traditional bakery sugar cookies used almond extract. Now don't be mistaken, these cookies are not lemon forward in the slightest. In fact, the lemon extract just helps to brighten the overall taste and I find it brings out the warm notes of the nutmeg a bit more. Speaking of which:
#5: I add nutmeg to my sugar cookies. Just a sprinkle of nutmeg in the flour when mixing the dry ingredients is enough to solidify the flavor without overpowering the cookie. You can use cinnamon too, but I find cinnamon can be a very strong flavor where nutmeg is much more subtle.
Another thing I like to do with any cookie I make, is smack the baking sheet against the stove when I first take them out. Yes, I know that sounds a little insane, but its a little hack I learned from making recipes by Tieghan Gerard who owns HalfBakedHarvest. I thought she was little crazy too, but it creates these cracks and crinkles on the tops of the cookies, and also helps to flatten the cookies without comprising the texture.
These cookies are great for parties, holidays, or for a night when your looking for something sweet! Need to make these cookies for a holiday but don't want to put any extra work into buttercream's or icing? Just switch out the white roll sugar for colorful sprinkles and colored sugars! It'll make this cookie go from regular to ready for the Christmas party! I hope you guys enjoy!!
Happy Cooking!
Ingredients
1 cup salted or unsalted butter (cool room temperature)
1 1/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract or almond extract
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 large egg (room temperature)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/8 tsp salt (salted butter), 1/4 tsp salt (unsalted butter)
1/2 cup white sugar for coating sugar cookie balls
Special Equipment:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Ice cream or cookie scoop
Directions:
In the bowl of the stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until it is light in color and fluffy in texture. This should take between 3-5 minutes.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Accurate measurements are especially important for these cookies, so when measuring, use a butter knife and level off the top of the dry ingredients.
Add the eggs, vanilla and lemon extract and mix on medium speed until the mixture becomes very creamy and fluffed.
Using the "stir" setting on your mixer, very low speed, or using a wooden spatula, incorporate the dry ingredients into the dough until just combined (I generally do 1/2 cups at a time, giving the dough 2-3 stirs before adding more). Do NOT overmix! These cookies are meant to be thick, soft, and chewy, and overmixing can cause them come out dry and dense.
Let chill for 15 minutes and set oven to pre-heat at 375 degrees.
Take dough out of the fridge and fill a shallow bowl with the 1/2 cup of sugar. Using an ice cream or cookie scoop, scoop out 1 1/2 tbsp of cookie dough and roll into a ball between your hands. Roll the ball in the sugar, and place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 7-10 minutes, just until the cookie is set. The cookie should still be light in color, and the bottoms of the cookies a very light golden brown. Once you take the cookies out of the oven, lightly smack the baking sheet against the stove once or twice to create the crinkly top of the cookie. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for an additional minute or two before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.
When the cookies are cooled, they should be soft, chewy, thick, have a hint of lemon flavor and warmth from the nutmeg, a bit of shine from the rolling sugar, and hold their shape nicely. They can be stored at room temp covered in plastic wrap for up to 3 days.