Main Ingredients: Other
Styles: Baking, Holiday, Kid Friendly
Meal / Menu Items: Desserts
Cuisines: American
Recipes
Nanny Edith’s Sugar Cookies
Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies, depending on sizes and shape of cookie cutters
Start to Finish: 15 minutes prep, at least 1 hour to chill, 8 to 10 minutes to bake
These easy cookies are a blast to bake with kids. Even young tykes love to decorate them. And they survive quite well being shipped as treats for those special people not at home.
Recipe
2 cups all-purpose flour, (see Note* below)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small bowl, sift together flour (see Note*), baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Turn mixer to low and slowly add dry ingredients to sugar mixture. Mix until a stiff dough forms.
Divide the dough into three parts. Transfer to plastic wrap and shape into three disks about an inch thick. Wrap tightly. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours. (Dough will be very stiff and may need to stand a couple of minutes before rolling. Also you'll have to "work" the dough by rolling it until it is piiable enough to roll out and cut.)
To bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters of choice and gently place cookies on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until very light gold in color. Allow to cool for a minute on cookie sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely before icing.*
* Notes
Be sure to measure your flour correctly (click here for a video). Using even a bit too much flour will make this dough dry and difficult to work with. If you want to be precise, use a digital kitchen scale to measure out 8.5 ounces of four for the perfect amount.
Click on the Old-Fashioned Confectioner's Icing in the "Related Recipes" section just below this recipe.
Backstory
Alicia says:
It was over lunch that I mentioned to my friend Karen Latta that I was looking for a good rolled sugar cookie recipe like I used to make with my grandmother. She immediately offered her Nanny Edith’s recipe for me to try.
“Is it easy?” Alicia asked.
“Oh, super easy and the kids love, love, love them.”
We think you will, too!
Nutrition Info
Approximate Values Per 2-inch cookie: 61.5 calories (34% from fat), 2 g fat (1.5 g saturated), 11 mg cholesterol, 1 g protein, 9 g carbohydrates, trace amount dietary fiber, 37 mg sodium
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Related Recipes
Old-Fashioned Confectioner’s Icing
This simple icing can be colored for any type of sugar cookie occasion you need.
Read full recipe.
Comments
I saw this recipe in my local newspaper today and was excited to try it, but the dough was crumbly and never formed. I had to toss it down the sink. Is the butter measurement of 1/2 cup correct? It seems to be half of that usually called for in most sugar cookie recipes.
Hi Janet, I wonder if perhaps you used 1/2 of a STICK of butter instead of 1/2 CUP? (One-half of a cup of butter is one whole stick, which is what these cookies need.) That’s the only reason we can think of why your cookies didn’t work. I have changed the recipe to read 1 stick of butter just in case that was the confustion!
So very sorry your cookies didn’t work.
From Barbara H. of Charlotte, N.C., via email:
Hello~
I have just finished baking these wonderful cookies. You have NO idea how many recipes I’ve tried over 30 plus years….I knew that eventually I would find the right one, and this morning’s newspaper brought it to me.
Thanks so much for including this recipe in your column!
Barbara H
Thank you for your reply, Beverly. I used a full stick (1/2 cup) the first time around. I tried the recipe again and increased the butter to 3/4 cup which gave me great results.
I look forward to reading your column each week in The Kansas City Star, and have recently found your website which I also enjoy!
I wish you had included the recipe for the icing!
Where’s the icing recipe?
So glad this recipe prints the comments too! Also would like the recipe for the icing…
Will definately try this recipe
We hear ya! We’ll get the icing loaded on the site ASAP!!
Okay everyone! The Old-Fashioned Confectioner’s Icing recipe is now posted on Kitchen Scoop. So sorry for the delay!
I also had a crumbly mess using 2 sticks of butter for a double recipe. Even at room temp it did not work.I had to pitch it!! Miriam
Hi everyone,
I just finished another batch of these cookies (about my 10th since I received the recipe!) and it worked perfectly! PLEASE make sure you are softening your butter properly and measuring your flour according to the video now posted on the site. Too much flour will make your cookies a crumbly mess. If you scoop your flour you can be adding as much as 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup more flour by packing it too tightly. A cup of flour only weighs 120 g. For a simple recipe like this is makes a huge difference! The only way to make sure you are measuring correctly is to sprinkle the flour over the measuring cup and level off (do not pack down) with a knife.
I hope this helps!
Alicia
Made the Nanny Edith’s Sugar Cookies this morning for a Valentine treat. I love this recipe. The driections are right on. Room temperture unsalted butter is the key, as with most recipes.
Easy and very tasty.
I look forward to making these cookies again and again.
I always read your collum.
Thank you for being a part of our local paper. The News and Observer, Raleigh NC