Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

For a project last week I wanted a sugar cookie that would be fluffy and more cake-like, compared with my tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe (which I just looked up to link to, and what do you know I've never posted it here! I'll have to do that sometime). I tried this recipe, found at allrecipes.com, because it called for so much more sour cream than the other sour cream sugar cookie recipes listed. They are quite tasty and I will make them again. The dough is not too sweet, so they do need to be frosted.

5 c all-purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c shortening

2 c white sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 c sour cream (full-fat is best)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla and sour cream. Gradually mix in the sifted flour mixture until just blended. Cover or wrap dough and chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4" thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2" apart onto cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges just begin to brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen.

A few notes:

This dough extremely sticky. When I rolled out my first batch I needed a lot of flour and then the cookies still stuck to the counter. So, I figured out a little trick that worked with the rest of the batches: dump about 1/4 c of flour on the counter and a big hunk of dough (maybe enough to cut 20 or so cookies from). Flour your hands, and knead the dough on the counter with the flour... once it has taken on enough flour so that you can work with it, then roll it out and proceed. Much easier!

This dough is very tender and fluffy and delicious... I had a hard time not eating pieces off the extra dough in the fridge...

This afternoon I baked my remaining dough into hearts, and Lucy (age 7) helped me decorate them. I didn't feel like whipping up a batch of buttercream for only about 20-25 cookies, so I scoured the pantry for what was on hand. We had a little bit of red and white Wilton bottled frosting leftover from birthdays' past, but not enough to do all the cookies. I thought to myself, "What is frosting made of? Mostly sugar, and butter." So... I had some marshmallow creme that I didn't need for anything else... and I mixed about half a stick of softened butter with a 7 oz jar of marshmallow cream. I swirled some of the red Wilton frosting into it to make the fancy swirly effect you see in the picture. Lucy was liberal with the red sprinkles on some of them. The flavor of the marshmallow/butter frosting is pretty good, but it's sticky and runny and was pretty hard to work with. It was a fun experiment though, and if taste is all that matters then I would call it a success.