It’s time for a fuel break from the giveaway madness here at MHS. All giveaways and no yakking make me a dull blogger. If you missed the giveaways, no worries, still time to enter here and here. Plus more to come.
Since there are no bakers or cooks in my family lineage, few, if any, family recipes have been passed down through the generations to enjoy. Rather than sulk, I started my own holiday baking tradition years ago with an annual ‘holiday bakeoff’. It started with just my sisters, my mom and I, now it includes my kids and an array of friends and cousins.
Through our bakeoff fun, many cookie recipes have emerged as family favorites. However I had yet to find a sugar cookie recipe that I truly loved. Were rolled sugar cookies more for looks than flavor? Just a cute vehicle for shoveling icing down the gullet? With all the chilling/rolling/cutting, were they worth the PIA? Many claim to be the ‘best’ holiday sugar cookie recipe when in fact I’ve never found one that was so memorably delicious, it stood out among the rest. So we staged a throwdown with recipes from some baking industry heavyweights:
Contender A: Martha Stewart’s Ideal Sugar Cookies
Contender B: Pioneer Woman’s Angel Sugar Cookies
Note: I’ve since found a gluten-free version of PW’s Angel Sugar Cookies (I swear what would we do without bloggers?) but have yet to try.
Contender C: Allrecipes’ Best Sugar Cookies.
Before we begin, let me warn you: there is nothing ‘healthified’ about these recipes. These are all knock-down, drag-out, sugar/butter/refined flour packed confections. I’ll admit it felt VERY weird pulling white flour out of the dark recesses of the pantry but whole wheat will have to wait on this one.
I fired up Katniss, the trusty mixer, and let the games begin!
We mixed…
…we rolled…
…we cut…
…we baked…
…and at last, the contenders were put before an esteemed panel of judges.
Alright I’m kidding, these are not the judges. But they sure wanted to be.
3rd Place. (top right) Martha Stewart’s Ideal Sugar Cookies. These came out smooth and held their shape very well. The dough was a tad less pliable than the others. The taste? Much like it’s creator (Martha, not me) uptight and humorless…oh wait…I don’t even know Martha…she just seems that way to me. But honestly the cookies, by unanimous vote of the judges, had the most perfect appearance (if that’s what you’re after) but tasted bland, plain, cardboardesque. Just begging for some royal icing.
Runner-Up. (bottom) Allrecipes Best Sugar Cookies. This one was very similar to Martha’s above. Just minor variations on ingredients. Dough was rubbery and play doh-like through the rolling process. Final product appears grainy but has better, richer flavor flavor than Martha’s. Good but not great. Certainly not ‘best’. This one could use some icing as well.
Champion. (top left) PW Angel Sugar Cookies. This recipe had some ingredients not found in the others: powdered sugar and canola oil gave the dough a silky texture. But before I even switched on Katniss, there was an issue: PW didn’t intend them to be cutout cookies. Rather she rolled the dough into balls and pressed them with a sugar-clad glass bottom. Could this dough even be used for cutouts? The answer is yes, although you’ll see in the pic it puffed out, but nothing crazy, at least to me, I welcome crazy after all. Chalk it up to the oil and powdered sugar, to PW magic, not sure what, but these were far more flavorful than the others. Our panel of judges agreed unanimously, these were the best and could definitely stand alone without icing.
Do you have recipes that have been passed down through your family? Do you have a cookie recipe you wanna throwdown?
Have you started any new holiday traditions?
Have not tried options B and C but PW’s cookies are so very good! I think I was drawn to them because there was no rolling required 🙂 I like an easy, no mess recipe!
my MIL swears by using powdered sugar….her sugar cookies are the best and still soft days later. I don’t know the reciped but I love when she sends us home with cookies.
My SIL makes the Paula Dean sugar cookie recipie and they taste freakin awesome. She uses frosting, but the cookies could stand alone. Looks like you’ve got more baking to do!
We don’t do cookies in my family but whenever I go home my father makes me two dishes that I love – Salmon baked in Clam Sauce & Puttenesca Sauce! YUM! I am going home in 10 days too.. CANNOT WAIT TO FEAST on the good stuff, my father is a fantastic cook 🙂 Your cookies look delish by the way, haven’t had a cookie in 10 years if you can believe it!
I need to check out that GF recipe for my sister. We do have one recipe for Russian Tea Cakes that my grandmother used to make, mom makes and now my sister and I do.
In my experience, Pioneer woman can do no wrong. She is my go too! The only cookie recipe passed on to me was for rosettes. They are deep fried and then covered in powdered sugar…probably not the healthiest option!
I come from the same recipe glut that you do. I am amassing my own, too.
I have a holiday cookie exchange next week. Perhaps I’ll try your #1!
Good to know to avoid MS’s, we’re not big fans of sugar cookies anyway, probably for the reasons you mentioned. They rarely stand alone on their own. And one cut out cookie (gingerbread) is enough!
What a fun idea – I love Throwdown!!! I’m not a big baker (I prefer to cook) so we don’t usually do sugar cookies – lame, I know! Your’s look great!!!
My mom has the best sugar cookie recipe ever. Ever.
I’ve got a great cookie recipe that can be used as a vehicle for all manner of delicious add-ins but unfortunately the cookie is one of those fuggly cookies – good for eating and not for looking at. But regardless I’m happy to share.
125g butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 cups self-raising flour.
Beat the butter and sugar together. Then add in the egg then the flour and finally what ever you want. Today’s batch had half a cup of peanuts, 1/2 a packet of peanut M&Ms, 100gm dark chocolate (chopped) and 100g white chocolate (chopped).
Make handful-sized balls and bake in mod oven for 25-30 mins or until golden brown.
I’ve also done these with a bit of cinnamon, diced dried figs and dried cranberries and they’re yum.
Oh good Lord, girl…I’m stressing about baking one batch of cookies and here you knocked out THREE sugar cookies – just for testies! I’d pay you TONS to make me some cookies and send them so I don’t have to!!!
UM
wow.
youve kicked my cookingmaking misfita** :0)
I’m so glad you did this! I’m forever looking for a sugar cookie that tastes good all by itself! And I find that PW’s recipes are usually a win. Have you tried her mashed potatoes? BEST EVER.
I want sugar cookies! I want sugar cookies! Yum! They all look good! 🙂
they all look so good! i made my “go-to” triple chocolate cake (from southern living) that is definitely not good for you but oh so delicious! also made ginger snap cookies. for the second year in a row, the bf and i are heading to see a Christmas Carol next weekend. it’s becoming “our” tradition. 🙂
That’s really fun! I don’t have any cookies I would want to throw down but I would love to make a lot of cookies and taste test them all 🙂