One of me favorite things to make is frosted sugar cookies. They are delicious, versatile, and super fun to decorate for any and every occasion. I used to cheat and use a boxed sugar cookie mix, but the brand I prefer (Krusteaz) is no longer carried at any of my local grocery stores, so this holiday season I realized I would have to take drastic measures and (gasp!) make my sugar cookies from scratch. I have done this before, but haven’t found a recipe that was worth repeating. So, I did some research, and narrowed it down to these two recipes:
Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Granulated sugar or colored sugar
Directions
1. Mix powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients except granulated sugar. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 375ºF. Lightly grease cookie sheet.
3. Divide dough in half. Roll each half 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes with 2- to 2 1/2-inch cookie cutters. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Place on cookie sheet.
4. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until edges are light brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.
Allrecipes.com The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
Then, it was time for the duel. So, I prepared my ingredients
And mixed my doughs
Betty Crocker
All Recipes
And baked my cookies (even though the all recipes said to bake them at 400, I baked them at 375 and they turned out fine, 400 seemed really high to me and the oven was already at 375)
Betty on Left, AllRecipes on Right
So once all that was done….the big question is, which recipe was better?
Let me start out by saying, they both had their good and bad points – The Betty Crocker cookies were slightly drier, but more flaky and had lots of delicate layers, which were delicious. The All Recipes cookies were richer and more buttery, but puffed up more when baking and definitely had a slightly more shortbread-ish texture, which isn’t my favorite when it comes to sugar cookies
For me, I think the winner has to be the Betty Crocker recipe, the smooth dough produced a cookie which had a better overall taste, which could have something to do with the almond extract in the dough (yum!)
However, if you are looking for more of a classic sugar cookie taste, I think your best bet would be the All Recipes cookies
Both turned out delicious and when slathered with frosting have that classic taste we have all come to associate with Christmas
Happy Holiday Baking!
Allrecipes’ “The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies” is the recipe I use EVERY year! I will never switch! Glad you found it, too!
I’ll have to steal the almond extract idea from Betty Crocker…sounds like it would add a lot more overall flavor!
The almond definitely makes it such a different taste hard to believe since it’s such a small amount but its true. Betty hasn’t steered me wrong yet ha!