Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

A Biannual Craving

There's a reason I crave sugar cookies twice a year. When I was young, they showed up on our counter for two holidays exactly--no more, no less. For Halloween, they sported orange frosting and for Valentine's Day, they wore pink. Grandma wasn’t responsible for their appearance--my mom was--so finding this recipe in Grandma’s box was a surprise. She did give credit where credit was due though–my mom is the “Mary” mentioned at the top of the card. 

To be honest, it had been a while since I’d had these cookies. Call me disloyal, but I’d found a recipe I liked even more, and it was the one I pulled out when the craving for sugar cookies struck. When I undertook this test, it wasn't Halloween or Valentine's Day, but I was watching my grandkids--another perfect occasion for sugar cookie making. It was also time to refresh my memory and find out if these cookies were as good as I remembered, especially when dunked in milk.  

How to make Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

I began as one usually does when making cookies by creaming together the shortening, sugar, and egg.

 These cookies also contain sour cream, which seems to be a key factor in their softness.  

I sifted in the flour, baking soda, and salt, but not the nutmeg. Two options for flavorings were listed on the card, so I decided to divide the dough and test them separately. 

I beat the dry ingredients into the wet. As you can see, the dough is quite stiff. 

I then split it in two and added vanilla to one half, nutmeg to the other. 

The dough was ready to roll out and cut into shapes.  

There was one potential problem with the recipe. The baking temperature and time–425 for 12 minutes–seemed too high and too long. So, I put one cookie on a silicone-lined cookie sheet and had my little helper sprinkled on some sugar as the recipe says to do.  

We baked that cookie at the directed time and temperature, and my suspicions were confirmed. 

It burned. 

That’s when I dug out my mother’s version of the recipe to see how high and how long she baked hers. Her directions were more reasonable, calling for 375 degrees for 8-9 minutes. 

My helper sprinkled some of the cookies with sugar and I left some plain to be frosted. My memories were of frosted cookies, not sugared., so I wasn’t sure how or why Grandma’s recipe had diverged from my mother’s. 

The Verdict

Nutmeg vs. vanilla - Nutmeg won out for me, but that’s probably because the cookie from my youth contained a hint of spice. It’s not overpowering–just enough to add a spark of life. However, the vanilla-flavored version was also good. 

Sugar vs. Frosting. The sugar cookies I crave on a biannual basis are frosted, so, of course, the frosted ones came out on top for me. This, too, might be a nostalgia thing, but I do love how the frosting adds a creamy contrast to the cookie.

Overall, this is a top-notch sugar cookie. And I believe the flavor would be even better if the cookies were made with butter instead of shortening, which my mom’s version gives permission to do. In fact, with butter as the base, they might even rival my favorite: The Best Sugar Cookies from Our Best Bites. 

Actually, that might be an interesting test–Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies vs. The Best Sugar Cookie. Raise your hand if you’d like to see that contest. Yup, me too. Next time I have a craving--so, next Halloween--the contest is on. 

If you’d like to try this one and see if it rivals your favorite, click on the link below the recipe card to download and print it out. And don’t forget to dunk!