Recipe for "sug-cookies-1"

NAME

     SUG-COOKIES-1 - Delicate and buttery sugar cookies

INGREDIENTS (makes 10 dozen)

     230 g     butter, softened
     250 ml    salad oil
     130 g     powdered sugar, sifted if it is lumpy
     190 g     sugar
     2         eggs
     5 ml      vanilla
     400 g     flour
     5 ml      baking soda
     10 ml     cream of tartar
     2.5 ml    salt
               extra sugar (for dipping)

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Cream the butter and sugars, then add oil and  mix
               well.
          (2)  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
          (3)  Sift the flour, baking soda, cream of  tartar  and
               salt together, then add to above and mix well.
          (4)  Refrigerate overnight, or until dough is firm.  If
               you  want  to  speed this up, put the dough in the
               freezer, but keep an eye on it.
          (5)  Preheat oven to 175 deg. C.
          (6)  Drop dough in 3ml amounts on an  ungreased  cookie
               sheet.   Dip a glass in dough and wipe excess off.
               Then dip the glass in sugar and flatten a  cookie.
               Repeat  the  dip-in-sugar  flatten-cookie sequence
               until all are done.  The cookies won't  spread  in
               baking,  so  you can easily judge how far apart to
               put them  (you want  room  to  cook,  but  not  to
               grow).   If you find that the dough is getting too
               soft to flatten easily, put it in the refrigerator
               between batches.
          (7)  Bake for about 5-6 minutes, until  the  edges  are
               JUST beginning to turn golden brown.  Take off the
               cookie sheet and put on waxed  paper  or  foil  to
               cool.

NOTES

     You can add 30-40 ml cocoa to about 500  g  dough  for  cho-
     colate  cookies,  or  add  cinnamon to the dipping sugar for
     spice cookies.  I like the  sugar  cookies  plain,  so  I've
     never actually tried this.
     These cookies don't freeze well, because they  pick  up  the
     flavors  of  the  other  things in the freezer. Make only as
     many as you can eat before they go stale.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy.  Time: 10 minutes preparation, 8  or  more
     hours in refrigerator, 30 minutes final preparation and bak-
     ing.  Precision: Measure the ingredients.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Vicki O'Day
     Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto CA
     hplabs!oday