Grandma's Sugar Cookies

From Grandma Larsen.

Prep: 10 min. / Bake: 8-10 min.

Yield: about 100 cookies

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

1 heaping tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup cream or 1/2 and 1/2

1 tsp. lemon juice

4-6 cups flour (I used 6)

Extra sugar for dipping (probably about 1/2 cup)

Cream sugar and shortening.  Add baking powder and salt; mix well.  Add vanilla and eggs; mix well.  Add cream and lemon juice; mix well again.

Add 4 cups flour, mixing well after each cup.  Gradually mix in 2 more cups flour until the dough reaches the consistency you want.

Roll small balls of dough in your hands and place on greased (or parchment-lined) cookie sheets, six cookies per sheet.  Dip a cup into a bowl of the reserved sugar and press down on a cookie until it is pretty thin; repeat for each cookie.

Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes, or until edges turn golden brown.  Remove cookies to cooling racks immediately to prevent breakage.

Notes:

- My grandma's recipe was a little vague on some things (come on, she probably made these from memory and didn't actually need the written recipe), so I've amended it.  (For example, the original recipe calls for mixing in 3 cups of flour, then turning the dough onto a bread board to "roll or mix" with 1 more cup, then possibly adding more flour so the total comes to 6 cups.  I stuck with my Kitchen Aid (using the paddle) and gradually added flour after the first 4 cups until I thought the dough looked right.  Would you believe it was at exactly 6 cups that I thought it looked good?  Perhaps it depends on the weather.)

- Her recipe doesn't call for mixing dry and wet ingredients separately, so I didn't!  I just added them in the order they're listed.

- Her recipe notes that the cream or 1/2 and 1/2 can be sweet or sour, meaning you can use it even if it's a little old.  (Here's a great way to use the cream you forgot was in the back of your fridge.)

- I found that using a level cookie scoop's-worth (or a little less) was the perfect amount for each cookie. If you don't have a cookie scoop, use about a teaspoon (the table kind, not the measuring spoon kind); if you're picky, it's probably about 1 Tbs. of dough.

- I used a flat-bottomed, 12-oz glass tumbler for pressing my cookies.  My grandma's cookies ended up being about the same diameter as a can of sweet potatoes or pureed pumpkin; mine were about the diameter of a can of Campbell's Chunky soup.

- Before dipping the cup into the sugar, you'll want to rub your hand (after rolling up the dough balls) over the bottom so that the sugar actually sticks to something.

- These freeze really well.  My grandma would make a batch and freeze the cookies in bags so that there would always be some on the counter for us.
- One cookie has about 65 calories.