Sugar Cookies

One of the first things I ever learnt to bake were these sugar cookies. I had my own little apron and small roller and would love cutting out the shapes with the cookie cutter.

And the recipe is so easy and tasty and it is, in fact, the very first recipe I put in my own recipe book.

Here's the recipe:

Becky's Signature Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla

5-6 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and milk and all that other stuff. Mix away and add the flour. Bake at 375 F for 12ish or so minutes.

I usually sprinkle with decorative sugar before I pop the cookies into the oven, but I used some coarser sugar I got from my sugar dealer, so with the ghosts, I added the sugar after they came out of the oven.

And now a little chemistry:

Cream of tartar is really potassium hydrogen tartrate (KC4H5O6) and is used to help activate the baking soda. The baking soda is added to raise the pH of the cookie dough which then weakens the gluten and the egg protein structure. This makes the cookie spread more and is crispier and browner.

Sorry for delving into the depths of chemistry, even if none of that makes any sense, this recipe is fun and easy and makes a very tasty cookie.

~b~