Sugar cookies are made with eggs, vanilla, sugar, butter, flour and either baking soda or baking powder. They can be cut into any shape you like with a cookie cutter or stretched into shape by hand. The dough is sometimes very sticky so you might find that spraying it with water before shaping the cookies helps.
These cookies can be decorated with sprinkles, frosting or both. Decorated sugar cookies are popular all year but even more so at Halloween, Christmas and other holidays. Their delicious flavor and colorful appearance makes them attractive to children and adults alike.
There are various kinds of sugar cookies and some contain ingredients like orange juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, or aniseed. Another name for Mexican sugar cookies is "polvorones" and they are popular at Mexican weddings, fiestas, and holidays. They can also be enjoyed at home with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.
These crumbly, rich cookies are found throughout Spain and Mexico during the holidays. They are simple to make and they keep for several days in an airtight container.
The History of Sugar Cookies
German protestants who settled in Pennsylvania in the mid-eighteenth century are credited with the invention of the "Nazareth Sugar Cookie," named after Nazareth, the part of Pennsylvania where they lived. This cookie has been Pennsylvania's official cookie since 2001.
It is thought that sugar cookies are derived from jumbles, which are a similar type of unleavened cookie. Jumbles can be traced back to medieval Arab cuisine, which contained a lot of sugar. These little cookies also contained spices and nuts and the Moors introduced the recipe to Spain.
Jumbles were baked thickly and would keep for up to a year, making them ideal for travelers. They were often baked in knot shapes. The nuts and spices were dropped from the jumbles recipe and sugar cookies were born.
Recipe for Mexican Sugar Cookies with Vanilla
This recipe makes delicious vanilla flavored cookies. You can frost them and add sprinkles when they are cool. Not every recipe for sugar cookies contains vanilla extract but it does give the cookies a really nice smell and flavor. The combination of shortening and butter gives these cookies plenty of rich flavor and also keeps them light and crumbly.
What you will need:
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
How to make them:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Beat the shortening with the butter, and then add the salt, baking powder, and sugar. Keep beating this mixture until it is well mixed. Add the vanilla and egg, then the flour. Divide the cookie dough in half, then cover it in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Roll half the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness on a floured board and cut it using a cookie cutter. Arrange the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Bake the cookies for about seven minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown and the edges are firm. Let them cool on wire racks.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น