Best (and Fastest!) No-Chill Sugar Cookies

 

 

When I was a kid, one thing you could always count on was Mom’s sugar cookies. They were (and still are) the only cookies she knew how to bake. But that was okay! They were (and still are) the best sugar cookies I ever had. To this day, you can walk into Mom’s kitchen and always find the 50 year old plastic container she used as a cookie jar on top of the fridge and have a cookie. She just mixes up a few simple ingredients, rolls out the dough, cuts them out, and bakes them. No waiting. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that most roll-out cookie recipes call for an hour (or more!) chilling time before you can even think about eating them! Who has the time? Or patience?

Not me! Not you or your kids, either, I’ll bet. These simple and basic sugar cookies should be in your baking arsenal all year round. Any cookie cutter, any decoration – even no decoration at all, like you see here – they’re suitable for any occasion, and they’re sturdy enough for even the littlest ones to get into the action!

My Mom’s No-Chill Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup lemon or orange juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Additional white sugar or colored sugars, jimmies, confettis, etc. for decorating (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350º F.  Prepare a cookie sheet by your choice of (a) lining it with parchment paper; (b) lightly greasing it; or (c) lining it with a silicone baking mat.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center. Add the egg, sugar, oil, juice and vanilla to the well. Stir together, then switch to using your hand to combine thoroughly into a firm dough.

Roll out the dough to ¼” thick and cut into whatever shapes you like, using a 2″ cookie cutter. Dip the top of each cookie into your decorating sugar (if using).  Place the cut out cookies about 1-1/2″ apart on your prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove the cookies from the pan and allow to cool on racks.

Yields about 2 dozen 2-inch cookies. Recipe can be doubled, if desired.

Tips:

• Bake the cookies without sprinkling anything on top, and when they’ve cooled, frost them with the kids! Suitable for any kind of icing.
• Here’s a tip for using larger or more intricately-designed cookie cutters:  Roll the dough out directly onto the parchment paper or pan liner, cut out your cookies, appropriately spaced, and remove the excess dough carefully. Now just transfer the entire sheet to the pan! No worries about stretching the dough when transferring the shapes to the pan!