Sugar Cookies - Part 2

can you tell the difference?


What more could I possibly have to say about sugar cookies you're, no doubt, wondering. Hmmm...now that I think about it, there are a few things. To begin with, it hit me this morning that my very FIRST batch of sugar cookies was made long before my days at the UA, when I was about ten years old. Keep in mind that I did NOT go in for baking, as a rule. My mother was Queen of the Kitchen and seldom desired that anyone come in and usurp her role. And then there was me -bookworm, introvert, and more than happy to have a reason to stay far away from anything culinary.

The reason I decided to bake that first batch of sugar cookies was purely philanthropic. While I don't even remember much about this old couple now, I do know that an elderly husband and wife lived on the street in back of us and, for whatever reason, I decided to show my love for them by baking them cookies. I have no idea what possessed me to start with a rolled, stamped cookie! It most certainly wasn't because they were a staple in my home OR because we had all the necessary gadgets to complete the experience. Not having access to cookie cutters, I used a drinking glass to cut round circles and then frosted those circles with a simple icing.

I can only imagine how awful my plate of sugar cookies must have tasted but, in true kindly old people fashion, both husband and wife raved over my offering, as though it was the finest delicacy they had ever had in their lives. And, looking back with adult perspective - maybe they were just happy for the attentions of a little girl who thought them to be the nicest folks around. Anything cooked with a healthy dose of love, attention, and admiration probably winds up tasting pretty fine.

That's my digression of the morning. I actually wrote this post to talk about Round Two of Cookie Baking for Christmas 2010. I couldn't very well leave out my newly vegan child so, after searches on the internet, I was able to whip up a batch of vegan cookies for Brian. The first search yielded a recipe heralded as best ever - it wasn't. Never trust a recipe that doesn't allow for reader comments. (Except mine.) I knew the minute I made up the dough that something was very wrong. There was no way the gooey, sloppy mess created was ever going to be firm enough to roll out for sugar cookies. It looked more like that weird stuff my kids used to want me to buy for them - flurp? Flarp? Runny play-dough?

Fortunately, Emily arrived and searched out some of her more tried and true cooking blogs, coming up with another variation - ironically enough, also billed as the best vegan sugar cookie ever. I don't know if the cookies live up to their press but I can say the dough sure looked and worked more like regular sugar cookie dough.

Brian wound up with his own batch of Stoops Christmas sugar cookies. Both he and Emily say they taste fine. In fact, Brian proposes a blind taste test wherein we substitute some vegan variety for the regular sugar cookies here in this house and then feed them to my mother-in-law. She loves my sugar cookies and says it can't be Christmas unless I have a batch waiting for her when she arrives to spend the holidays with us. Will she recognize a vegan substitute for her idea of a perfect holiday cookie? Stay tuned....