Soft Sugar Cookies

By XrayKim

This Recipe is a State Fair Blue Ribbon winner. This is an easy sugar cookie recipe, you don't have to roll it out, and the cookies are soft and chewy, unlike other sugar cookies.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar for
• decoration

Details

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Reviewed on Jul. 10, 2007 by Nikolette T rating

Update: I made this recipe again last night, also cutting it in half. It was much better this time. The changes I made were simple but great. I added a half tsp of nutmeg and doubled the vanilla. When you so not roll them in sugar but just press the balls to flatten and bake it makes a good Lofthouse-type soft/cake-y cookie. Original: I halved the recipe. It wasn't the BEST cookie I've ever had, but I rated it 5 stars since it held up to last minute changes. I didn't know I was out of vanilla so I substituted almond. My boyfriend liked the flavor, but since I wanted a traditional sugar cookie I wasn't impressed. I ended up being a quarter cup short of granulated sugar so I subbed brown sugar. I was pleased the cookie stood up to the occasion. I decided to make some of the cookies "special" by placing M&Ms on top of the balls. They formed PERFECTLY shaped cookies. I also cut the mini fun sized snicker bars into quarters (NOT the larger fun sized ones) and pushed them into the uncooked cookie balls and then pressed the sides up to reform the ball. They came out EXCELLENT! I also rolled some of the balls in dried coconut powder (really more like minced coconut rather than a fine powder) Those were ALSO delicious. They came out so gorgeous. I'm definitely doing that again. My guests loved them and loved testing the special ones. This is a good standard sugar cookie that I look forward to experimenting with in the future. Recommend adding candies and such for a little bit of fun.