3/4 pounds salted butter, softened Ask a question about this ingredient
1 3/4 cup sugar Ask a question about this ingredient
2 egg yolks Ask a question about this ingredient
2 teaspoons vanilla extract Ask a question about this ingredient
3 1/2 cups flour Ask a question about this ingredient
Red, green or multi-colored sugar Ask a question about this ingredient
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the yolks and vanilla, mixing well. Add the flour and combine thoroughly.
Ask a question about this stepUse mounded teaspoonfuls and make balls of dough with your hands. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, then flatten the dough with the bottom of a patterned glass dipped in colored sugar (don't mix the red and green!).
Ask a question about this stepBake for about 10 minutes (watch carefully as they burn easily), until the cookies are lightly golden just around the edges. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for a minute or two and then gently transfer to baking racks to cool -- they're fragile.
Ask a question about this stepThese are delicious. Seriously rich!
I flattened the balls of dough slightly with my fingers, sprinkled the sugar, then flattened with the glass.
This helped keep the dough from sticking to the glass.
I used raw sugar, because, the label on the stuff available at our local market, said that it was colored crystals ................ crystals of what???
LynndaSB & Greenstuff,
Thank you so much for your comments!! You helped me to make up my mind! I will be baking these cookies this weekend!
OMG! These cookies are delicious! so delicate and the buttery taste just sweetens the moderate sugar that melts in your mouth!
I changed the recipe a bit...I used very high quality imported butter but only have 1/2 pound....so I cut the rest of the recipe by 1/3.....I added a bit more vanilla than was asked for and used 1 1/2 yolks.
no trouble with the dough...it was mellow and pliable and easy to work with....
I cooked the little lovelies at a little lower temp...around 300 and for about 5 minutes longer than required in the recipe.
I loved squishing the red sugar into the top of the cookie....I dipped the bottom of the glass in water before pressing down...this prevented any sticking!
when I popped one into my mouth.....heavenly!
The secret is to hide a few for yourself !
I make a lot of Swedish cookies with the same basic ingredients, just slightly different amounts. I decided to add these to the mix so that I could use some old punch cups and a pretty French mustard jar as my presses. I decreased the flour a little, as I'd seen the jagged edges in the photo and thought I'd like to avoid them. (I also used white sugar instead of colored, as my Swedish cookies are pretty monchromatic.)
Anyway, even with less flour, I did have a little problem with crumbly dough, as others have mentioned. That was solved by carefully pushing it together as I worked, not unlike working with pie crust or other pastry. Then, perhaps because the dough was actually not dry enough, some of my imprinted patterns blurred a bit. But not all. The mustard jar pattern was particularly nice, better than the antique punch cups that had served up a lot of glogg in their times.
The bottom line--these cookies are delicious!! I'm astounded by how slightly varying amounts of butter, sugar, egg, and flour produce different flavors. And I love the imprints. I wish I had all the time in the world, I'd experiment with them more.
Just made these again and they are every bit as good as I remembered from last year.....thanks again for the recipe...
I just made these beautiful, buttery cookies, which I was looking forward to doing after tasting them at a Food52 cookbook signing a few weeks ago. I didn't have any trouble with the dough at all. My problem was that I tried unsuccessfully using a cookie press without letting the dough chill first, and that was my own fault; the dough stuck to the press. I got around it by flattening the cookie a bit with my palm, then liberally sprinkling very safe raspberry red decorating sugar (by India Tree) directly on the cookie before pressing.
Is anyone monitoring the comments on this recipe? I asked about the yolk bath and now someone is having issues with the dough.
Hi Sly Brandy -- Veronica might not have notifications turned on, so she may not know that there are questions on the recipe. As for the egg yolk, my mom has a similar recipe, where she brushes egg yolk thinned with water onto a roll of cookie dough, then rolls it in coconut and slices and bakes it, so I think agamom's variation sounds great!
I made the dough and it was so dry and cumbled so badly I could not do anything with it.
Any suggestions?
Hi mikelien -- sorry about that! Did you use 3/4 pound of butter (that's 3 whole sticks)?
I think this is the "long lost" family sugar cookie recipe I've been searching for for years. I am so excited to try it!
agamom- Did you really brush the dough with the egg YOLK?
I made these at Christmas cuz I love sugar cookies, but don't like to roll them out. They are yummy...
Thanks for a great recipe, Veronica. I love sugar cookies, but don't like to roll them out. These have a wonderful sugar cookie flavor with and easy prep.
These are perfect! I am so happy to have found this recipe. To me, this is the perfect Christmas cookie to leave out for Santa! Such a wonderful cookie - thank you for sharing! You made my day. Have a wonderful night!
The real 'secret' to this recipe is how incredibly delicious the cookie tastes after the flavor has developed over a few days! Perfect for Christmas gift giving or if you can restrain from consuming immediately. The vanilla scent is wonderful and the colors add to the beauty. Thank you for sharing! Ran out of time to bake so I rolled half the dough into a log in parchment and kept it overnight in the fridge. The next day: brushed the roll in beaten egg yolk mixed with a teaspoon of water, then sprinkled the colored sugar around the roll, then sliced (like sables) instead of rolling into balls. Not as pretty, but still delicious and very quickly made - and consumed!
Fany is the author of My Sweet Mexico and Paletas.
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The secret ingredients: butter, sugar, egg, flour and vanilla.
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Merrill looks on as Amanda demonstrates her dip-and-sweep flour-measuring technique.
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Amanda and Merrill discuss how delicious those cookies will be!
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The butter and sugar are creamed in a standing mixer until light and fluffy -- you want them to be the palest of yellows.
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It takes two.
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Each cookie originates as a small ball before being pressed down into shape.
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No bigger than a golf ball!
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The art of arranging cookie dough on a sheet pan.
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A special trick for these secret cookies is colored sugar which is impressed onto the cookies.
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Merrill uses a beautiful pin-wheeled end of (something) to stamp the cookies into place.
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Sprinkled with sugar, they look so delicate waiting to be baked.
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Ta-da! Fireworks.
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Now you know the secret to the best sugar cookies around.
I made these for my daughter's lunches and used pink, lavendar and green sugar for spring (if you BAKE for it, it will come!). I had very little success using the glass bottom method and switched to 3-finger smooshing then sprinkling w/ sugar. I baked them until lightly golden but would warn against baking them too long, as they got crispier than I wanted on day 2. Don't get me wrong: they were eaten, every last one, but next time (and there will be a next time) I'll bake them slightly less. Fabulous flavor, very pretty, super-easy. Love them!