Fancy Cookies - Powdered Sugar Cookies

I'm pretty overdue in cooking and posting.  Taking classes, doing homework, raising children, and attempting to get enough sleep at night often means that other things get pushed to the side.  But fear not, the cookbook is never far from my mind.  With this post, we've reached the last of the cookbook sections that I'll be covering in the book.  There are a few sections and parts of the book that I may talk about next time, but now that I'm done with these cookies, I'll be going back to to the start of the book and working through again.  Once my classes are done in mid December, I'm hoping to do a few posts in pretty quick succession.

I do want to mention again, since I didn't publicize my last post so much, that I'd love a guest cook/writer for the canning section of the cook book.  If you're interested, please let me know.

If you'll recall, I've done a cookie recipe before and wondered what the difference is between the cookies  in the Cookies versus the Fancy Cookies section of the cook book.  I don't know that this recipe will shed any light on the matter.  I suppose that in the end it doesn't matter because more cookies are more cookies, and rarely is that a bad thing.

No I can't.

I was initially going to do one of the sugar cookie recipes on the front page of the section, but when I finally got around to making cookies, I found that I didn't have the ingredients needed for either of those recipes.  The next page had the following recipe, and had the added bonus of needing cherries, which we had in the refrigerator from when I made fruit salad, that have just been taking up space ever since.  There was also a check next to the recipe, which means that Aunt Marlys probably made and liked the recipe.  Oh, and by the way, don't knock over your jar of maraschino cherries without noticing.  The red liquid that leaks out of the bottle is a pain to clean up.

So here's our recipe for today:

A recipe that assumes cookie making knowledge.

Preparation

I had some assistance in making these cookies.  Cooking is always more fun with others, especially of the other is as smiley and fun as James.  Since there are no directions as to the method for mixing everything, I thought it best to mix the dry ingredients, cream the fats and the sugar separately, add wet ingredients, and then mix everything all together.

Carefully measuring out baking soda.

Who doesn't like whisking?

Dry ingredients are mixed, time for the sugar and fats.  The recipe calls for butter or shortening, so I went half and half.  There is food science behind the behavior of both fats.  Surely they behave differently in cookies. I've not spent that much time learning about the differences between shortening and butter, aside from taste.  But since we have shortening from a previous recipe, we might as well try to use it up.  I also know that shortening is kind of gross, and now James knows too.

He doesn't like measuring shortening any more than I do.  Too bad I won't be able to pawn that job off to him more in the future.

Mixing fat and sugar is more fun than measuring fat and sugar

Add the rest of the wet ingredients.  We're getting closer to dough to taste now.

Side note time.  James has been going to MacDonald Montessori School for over two years now.  I can't praise the school enough.  There have been times when he's come home from school competently doing something that we hadn't even thought to teach him.  Aside from exploring the world around them, the school helps the children learn skills to help them become more self-sufficient.  So I had him do one more job before it was cookie dough time.  He got to help cut the maraschino cherries in half.  I gave him a paring knife, and got out the cutting board.  He took the job very seriously, and he did a pretty good job.

Concentration.

It's a little funny though, 'cause that night about 45 minutes after we tucked him in bed, he crept back downstairs complaining that he couldn't sleep.  When we asked why, he said it was because he had some cuts on his fingers and they hurt a lot.  I looked at his fingers and didn't see a thing.  "Right there," he said, and pointed to two minuscule cuts that didn't remotely go through the skin, let alone bleed.  So we put on a band-aid, gave him a hug and a kiss, and sent him back up to bed.  Any reason to come downstairs at night for some attention from mom and dad, huh?

Anyway, the mixing was done.  Now it was time for cookie dough and playing memory with mom.

James usually wins.

While Sarah and James played memory, I cleaned up the counter, and chilled the dough since it was pretty sticky.  After half an hour or so, the oven went on, and out came the dough.  It was still a little sticky, so flattening the dough was a little tricky.  I first tried flattening the dough balls with my thumbs, but that was problematic.  Then I thought that I probably needed a whiskey... glass.

One time Teamster, and proud of it.

The dough just stuck to the glass, so I added some powdered sugar to a small bowl, coated the bottom of the glass, and flattened cookies with ease.  Then it was time to add the cherry halves.  I'm afraid I neglected a proper pre-oven picture.  Oh well.

I do have an in-oven picture though.

As you can see, using a powdered sugar-coated glass often left extra powdered sugar on and around the cookies.  Unfortunately, it didn't melt and harden like granulated sugar would have.  It just kind of clumped and formed mushy chunks where it stuck to the edge of the cookies.  Bleh.  We also didn't have enough cherries for all of the cookies.

Tasting and Reaction

I also neglected to get a picture of a nicely arranged plate of cookies.  Oh well.  I did get to eat cookies though.  Nom nom nom.

Quick, take my picture so I can eat this!

Chomp!

Impressions:  They're cute, but they're underwhelming.  They are cookies though, and rarely are cookies bad.  The flavor is of sugar, and sugar alone.  The cherry only adds texture and color, but little more.  The texture of the cookie is kind of like a loose short bread.  Using granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar would have lent itself to a more pleasing texture.  As it was, they were a little crumbly and didn't feel quite right.  I think the recipe could definitely have benefited from some granulated sugar in place of the powdered sugar, and perhaps some almond extract, which would have paired with the little bit of cherry flavor that was there.

I wasn't the only person to give some feedback on these cookies.  I brought them to campus for some of my anatomy classmates while we were studying for a big exam in a study center.  A cookie break from figuring out where the coronary arteries ran was just what we needed.

Charlie - Not bad at all, tastes like a regular old sugar cookie.  [I don't think Charlie was in anatomy, I'm not sure I trust his judgement]
Muna - It tastes good, not too sweet I like it.
Sabad - It is good.  Thank you.  [You're welcome]
Joseph - Awesome [Awesome?  You must be referring to the fact that you just ate a free homemade cookie when you weren't expecting one]
Aida - Very soft and crunchy.  Yummy
C.D. - Tastes great, texture is a little crumbly for me.
M.S. - Too powdery but tastes very old-fashioned, kind of like I'm at a tea party.  Very good.  [I'm sure Gladys would have liked the last half of your assessment]
L.O. - It was nice and creamy, not too sugary, which is perfect.

I also brought the last few cookies to one of the high schools where I substitute teach.  It's a little funny that on balance the high school students write and thought more about the cookies.

Andy - I am a fan of soft cookies, but this was a bit too soft.  The maraschino was a bit light.  Next time, less flour and more maraschino.  [Hey!  A reaction that says something.  Crazytown]
Polina - I like it, it's very fluffy.
Malik - I like the flavor a lot.  A little crumbly though [Malik is a cool kid.  He'll go far]

So in the end, how were the cookies?  Well, like I've mentioned any cookies are good cookies.  The texture was probably the biggest flaw in the recipe, but it wasn't enough to make me say I wouldn't make them again.  The real question is though, were these "Fancy Cookies" better than the Fancy Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies from the "Cookies" section of the cook book?  They were both flawed in their own way, but the Powdered Sugar Cookies were probably a little better since there was so little flavor in the Fancy Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies.  They both looked good, but also both needed a little something.  On balance, the Powdered Sugar Cookies were just a little better.  Score one for Fancy Cookies.

Next recipe:  Bread again!