Also known as Sawdust Cookies or Amish Sugar Cookies, these crisp sugar cookies are made with a mixture of butter and oil. The butter adds flavor and the oil helps give the cookies an interesting sandy texture. In my opinion the cookies don't work very well as cut-outs, but they are fine as regular sugar cookies.
They are small, thin and crisp and take well to sprinkles.
This is a smaller (half batch) version of the usual recipe. For these cookies to be crisp, you need to be extra careful when measuring the flour. Each of my cups weighted 4.5 oz (126 grams) for a total of 252 grams of flour. If you use heavier cups the cookies most likely will not be as crisp.
(Some older pictures!)
Also, this recipe works best with salted butter. If you use unsalted butter you may want to increase the salt by about ¼ teaspoon.
Recipe
Crisp Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour 250 grams**
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons salted butter softened
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon each - vanilla and fresh lemon juice
- 1 pinch nutmeg (or use ⅛ each orange and lemon zest
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Sift together flour, soda and cream of tartar. Stir in the salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter, oil, and both sugars until creamy. Beat in vanilla, lemon juice and nutmeg (or zest). Beat in egg.
- With a mixing spoon, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well mixed. If dough is soft, cover and chill for 1 hour.
- Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls (or a #70 scoop) onto an ungreased baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment. Dip bottom of a flat glass in sugar and press cookies down to make circles. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges or nicely browned.
Notes
Matt Ferreira says
Soft Sugar Cookies
This is another cookie recipe that is said to be very old Dutch.
Ingredients :
Sift together
4 cups flour 2 eggs unbeaten
1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup lard
1 tsp. soda 21/2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. Vanilla
Direction :
Blend the lard into the flour. Be careful to keep the mixture cold. Mix in the sugar. Add the eggs, butter... For more Click the link bellow
http://good-cookie-recipes.blogspot.com/2013/02/top-3-delicious-sugar-cookies-recipes.html
Anna says
Thanks Paul! Lots of posts are old, but I read all the comments and really appreciate new ones -- especially educational ones like yours. Again, thanks for the info.
Paul A. says
Hello-
I know the last post was several years ago, however, I wanted to try to answer the question from Michelle. You can substitute baking powder for baking soda, but not the other way around. Both are leavening agents, except the baking powder (which contains baking soda) is mixed with cream of tarter and usually starch. A leavening agents needs something acidic to react with to make carbon dioxide which is what gives your baked goods the light fluffy texture. Baking soda would react with the Chocolate chips, while the baking powder contains its own acids in the cream of tarter. you may not have gotten the same amount of "fluffyness" from using baking powder, but I don't think that CC Cookies should be fluffy anyway... hence they were better. Hope this helps!
Michelle W. says
I have a question about the Alton Brown Chewy cookies? I made them a few days back and they were perfect! (as I said in my previous comment) Made another batch this weekend, and realized that the first time, I had put in baking POWDER mistakenly, rather than the soda the recipe called for. So this time, I put in soda, but....they were better BEFORE!? What does this mean? I know Alton's recipes are very scientific but....????
Anna says
Hi Michelle!
I'm glad you've found a great cookie. The Alton Brown cookies is always reliable. The cookies are even better if you chill the dough overnight.
Michelle W. says
Hi Anna, I'm new!
I've been reading your blog for months now, but just signed up today.
I tried the Alton Brown "The Chewy" cookies last night! BEST c.c.cookies I've EVER baked! I'd given up on the Tollhouse recipe, they just turn out FLAT for me anymore. I bought the bread flour for these, even though I'm not sure what bread flour is---but my supermarket had it! Next I'll try his "Flat" and "Puffy" ones!
Anna says
Hi KAnn,
Lime juice will put a different spin on the cookie -- definitely try it if you love lime. The citrus flavor is supposed to be subtle here. You could leave it out entirely and the cookies would be good.
I sent some of these to work with my husband and everyone liked them. Of course now I'm going to be hooked on using European Style butter.
KAnn says
I am thinking about subbing lime juice for the lemon and adding lime zest to resemble a lime sugar cookie we sell at Wild Oats...
Anna says
Easy Cookie Recipe, I've read that unsalted butter is fresher so I buy it now. But like you, I've used salted and haven't had complaints of baked goods being salty. I have, on the other hand, tasted LOTS of baked good where people used unsalted instead of salted and the baked good tasted flat. I think those were probably recipes which were originally developed with salted butter or margarine. Just speculation ;).
Janet says
Hello! I just made a huge batch of sugar cookies from a new recipe I found online. There were OK but seemed to lack flavor so I look forward to trying your recipe the next time I make sugar cookies. They look delicious! Thanks!