Old fashioned sugar cookies made with lard and buttermilk

Q: What makes a chewy cookie chewy?

hi Bob), Cookies that are dense and chewy incorporate more moisture into the batter. This can be achieved by making substitutions with ingredients, or even just changing the way you incorporate certain ingredients. Plus, your particular baking technique and your method of storing cookies can also play a role.”

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Buttermilk Sugar Cookies

Table of Contents Show

Recipe Summary
Ingredients
Directions
Ingredients
Reviews (94)
What makes cookies puffy vs flat?
How do you make girlfriends sugar cookies?
Which ingredient makes cookies moist and tender?
What makes a chewy cookie chewy?

Recipe Summary

Yield:

Makes about 6 dozen

Ingredients

Ingredient Checklist

2 cups sugar
2 cups shortening
4 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups buttermilk
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 16-oz. container butter cream frosting
Optional: colored sugar or sprinkles

Directions

Instructions Checklist

Step 1
Blend together sugar, shortening and eggs. Add vanilla and buttermilk.
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Step 2
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into sugar mixture. Add more flour as needed to make a firm dough.
Step 3
Chill for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.
Step 4
On a floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out with cookie cutters; place on greased baking sheets.
Step 5
Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes. Let cool. Frost and decorate as desired.

Source

101 Cupcake, Cookie & Brownie Recipes

Amish Buttermilk Sugar Cookies.

An old-fashioned sugar cookie. Don’t worry if you don’t have buttermilk on hand you can still use regular milk to make this recipe, just add a small spoonful of extra flour. I substitute milk for this recipe all the time. These cookies turn out very soft and moist. My Grandma used to make cookies just like these only she used shortening instead of butter.

This recipe makes about 22 large size cookies. You can make them smaller if you want. I used about a 2.5 Tablespoon cookie scoop so if you used Tablespoon sized scoops the recipe will make more.

Amish Buttermilk Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2½ cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 F. Degrees.
In a large bowl cream butter and sugar together (I hand mixed the batter).
Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add to the creamed mixture, alternately, with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition.
Drop dough by the tablespoon or with a cookie scoop onto cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired.
Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.

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There are untold numbers of sugar cookie recipes circulating throughout the Midwest. As students of this sweet know, lard makes for a particularly toothsome cookie, with a texture at once crisp and sandy. For a cookie that is crisp but also chewy, vegetable shortening is best.

Ingredients

Makes about 32 cookies

1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening, melted and cooled

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup sugar plus additional for coating the cookies

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

Step 1

In a large bowl stir together the lard or shortening, the butter, 1 cup of the sugar, the egg, and the vanilla. Into the bowl sift together the flour, the baking soda, and the salt and stir the mixture until it forms a dough. Chill the dough, covered, for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll rounded tablespoons of the dough into balls, roll the balls in the additional sugar, coating them completely, and arrange them 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in the sugar (the edges will crack slightly) and bake the cookies in batches in the middle of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes, or until they are pale golden. Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool. The cookies keep in an airtight container for 1 week.

How would you rate Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies?

Reviews (94)

After reading previous reviews, I used half the baking soda indicated, a quarter of the salt, and twice the vanilla, and the result was perfect - a classic sugar cookie with a lovely texture and flavor. I'll definitely be making these again.
Very very salty. This recipe is an epic fail. Please take this recipe off this site so that others do not follow it and are just as much disappointed as i am.
I wish I had read the reviews before I made these cookies. There is too much baking soda and salt in these cookies. I also had a hard time rolling them out, but they did fine rolling rounded tablespoons.
Very good! I used shortening, and rolled out the chilled dough, used cookie cutters, then froze the cookies for about 15 mins to keep them from spreading out while baking. Tasted great, doubled the vanilla and it gave a great flavor.
Followed the recipe as written. Came out too salty. Can also see why others indicate to cut down on the baking soda. Dough was dry and crumbly and hard to work with.
While these cookies taste good when made as written, this is definitely not a cutout cookie dough. I made this dough to make snowflake cookies, and, with al of the baking soda, they puffed out and my snowflakes ended up looking like fat flowers; all the detail of the snowflakes was lost. Additionally, the dough was dry and crumbly and very difficult to work with. I would go for a different sugar cookie recipe next time.
I think this is a decent sugar cookie recipe, assuming you read the reviews beforehand. I reduced the baking soda to 1.5 teaspoons, and just used a dash of salt. I can't imagine that the recipe would need anymore than that. my cookies came out of the oven golden brown on the edges and chewy in the middle. I also think that this is a great cookie recipe to use if you plan to decorate with frosting, as the cookie itself is not overwhelmingly sweet (for a sugar cookie!). The dough takes no time to prepare, so I think I would make these again.
This is my all time favorite sugar cookie recipe. Easy! I also cut back the soda to 1 t. No other changes necessary.
This recipe is simple to make but taste is only okay in my opinion. I used butter instead of shortening and cut baking soda in half per other reviewers recs. I thought they still tasted salty/of baking soda. I scooped tablespoonsof dough, rolled into ball, rolled in sugar and mashed with bottom of a glass. That works fine and speeds up process although I'm sure cutouts could be more festive. Overall, I think there are better recipes and would probably not make this one again.
Ditto on cutting the baking soda. I did like this recipe b/c it was easy for my 4 year old to do most of it. I didn't roll any. I had my daughter scoop balls with a tablespoon and mash it with a glass. She loved it.
This was only ok. They were easy to make, but the dough was really sticky when I laid it out to roll. I had to add a ton of flour just to roll it out so it wouldnt stick. Unfortunately, since I had to add so much flour, the finished cookies taste too much like flour. I decorated the cookies with frosting and even that couldnt hide the flour-y taste of these cookies. Will be looking for a new sugar cookie recipe to use instead of this one.
not good. we used lard but very salty, i wish we read the reviews first :(
Great classic cookie. Everyone raved about them. As other's have suggested after first following the directions exactly, I made a second batch using less baking soda, 1 1/2 v 2 tsp... less is best. These are easy and for the holidays are easily made festive with the use of colored sugar.
I have been making these every Christmas since this recipe came out in 1993 (as well as Easter and St Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day and any other holiday where you can make a themed sugar cookie). It's the best one I've found and depending upon how thin you roll them (and I roll them paper thin) you can get a ton of cookies. I use butter instead of shortening because I like the taste and texture of butter. But if you are making intricate cut out cookies, then definitely use shortening or a combination of butter and shortening so that the cookies stay hearty.
I used lard (because I can't find vegetable shortening here in Eastern Europe). The cookies are ok, but hard as a rock. I won't be doing it the same next time.

What makes cookies puffy vs flat?

Q: Why are my cookies so puffy and cakey? Whipping too much air into the dough. That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don't overdo it when you're creaming together the butter and sugar.

How do you make girlfriends sugar cookies?

Preheat oven to 325 °F. Place cookies 3″ apart on lined baking paper. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes. Watch closely, baking times vary depending on oven.

Which ingredient makes cookies moist and tender?

Add Molasses or Honey Another way to add more moisture to your cookies is incorporate a tablespoon of molasses into a standard-sized cookie recipe. Don't use any more than a tablespoon, because it will make your cookies very sweet and runny. One tablespoon is just enough.

hi Bob), “Cookies that are dense and chewy incorporate more moisture into the batter. This can be achieved by making substitutions with ingredients, or even just changing the way you incorporate certain ingredients. Plus, your particular baking technique and your method of storing cookies can also play a role.”