We make sugar cookies on The Farm at Christmas and Valentine’s Day, usually when I’m around to help frost and decorate them.
According to Helen, these cookies can be a little putzy, so she doesn’t make them as often as her other cookie recipes.
But I think they are the best! The secret is the almond extract in the frosting. The almond adds a different kind of sweet and compliments the vanilla in the cookie. Also, this recipe is a really old Palmquist family one.
from Helen
This recipe’s been around here forever. It’s written on a faded piece of paper in grandma Toinie’s handwriting (Jim’s mother). I have another older version written in great grandma’s handwriting. I think it’s good because it rolls out well, and the cream of tarter adds a tang that helps balance out all the sugar.
A note on Cream of Tarter
Cream of tarter is a strange ingredient. It’s actually a byproduct of fermenting grapes into wine, and a common ingredient in old recipes. If you are interested in the science behind how cream of tarter works, this blog post is a great resource.
If you don’t have Cream of Tarter on hand, Allrecipes says on the same blog post that you can “use 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar to create the acidic effect of 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar in a recipe.”
STEPS: EXPLAINED, WITH TIDBITS AND ADVICE
1. To begin making the dough, in a mixer on high, cream 1 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, and 2 eggs together. We use the batter hook on our KitchenAid mixer. This should only take a few minutes and should look like this when it’s done.
2. Turn mixer to low. Then, add 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 4 tablespoons milk. Mix until well combined. I love vanilla, so I often double the amount.
3. Slowly add in the flour a little at a time until well combined.
4. Once the flour is mixed in, you’re going to have a pretty soft, sticky dough.
That’s why we chill the dough for 1 to 2 hours before attempting to roll these cookies out. Otherwise, as Helen says, you’ll have a mess. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in the fridge for 1 hour at least.
NOTE: You can make the dough the day before you want to bake these cookies. That’s often what we do at The Farm.
5. After your dough has chilled, it’s time to roll out the cookies. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Sprinkle a clean, dry counter with a light dusting of flour.
Scoop out about a third of the dough and put the rest back in the refrigerator. If you leave it out on the counter, the butter in the dough will warm up too much, the dough will become very sticky, and be too difficult to roll out.
I like to work the ball of dough a little in my hands to smooth it out. But be careful not to mess around with it too much. Your hands will heat the dough up.
7. Roll out a handful of dough until it is an eighth- to a quarter-inch thick.
NOTE: Pictured above is my second roll out. The first roll out is almost always a disaster in that the dough sticks to the counter. I only got those two cookies before I gave up, balled the dough up, and rolled it out again. My theory is that the counter needs to get “seasoned” to the dough. After the first roll out, the dough leaves behind a butter residue. That mixes with the flour, and then you have the perfect surface, and the cookies stop sticking. The dough also picks up a little extra flour from the counter, and I think that helps as well.
If your dough is sticking too much, try cooling it back down again in the fridge, adding more flour, or rolling out the dough so that it’s thicker.
The thinner the dough, the crispier the cookies will be. If you like them to be chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside, roll the dough thicker.
This is a teaspoon to show you the thickness I go for. I like my cookies pretty thick because they are easier to cut out. Thickness is a preference, but just make sure you are sticking with the same thickness on one cookie sheet or the cookies on a single pan will have different bake times. You’ll run into trouble with some burning before the thicker ones are done.
NOTE: To test thickness of my roll out, I run my hand over the surface of the dough to feel how thick it is.
8. Cut out cookies in desired shapes. Use a spatula to help get them off the counter if they aren’t sticking to your cookie cutters.
9. Bake cookies for about 9-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly brown.
10. Let the cookies cool completely on a rack before attempting to frost them or you’ll have a mess!
Butter Cream Frosting
11. While the cookies are cooling, it’s time to make the frosting!
NOTE FROM HELEN: This is a good, straight forward frosting recipe I got out of a newspaper. It keeps well in the refrigerator too if you want to make it ahead of time or use it on something else. Also, if you’d like to make this frosting chocolate flavored, add 1/3 cup cocoa with the powdered sugar.
1. In a mixer on high, beat 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter until it’s fluffy, about 5 minutes. It should look like this when it’s ready.
NOTE: Grab your favorite rubber spatula because you’re constantly going to need to scrape the frosting from the sides of the bowl and push it back down to where the beater can mix it.
2. Beat in 4 cups powdered sugar, a little at a time. Be prepared for a storm of powdered sugar to fly everywhere, unless you’re really patient and only do like a tablespoon at a time.
When all the powdered sugar is combined, the frosting will be really thick and almost crumbly. Make sure you do a better job of scraping the bowl than I did.
3. Add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons almond extract while still mixing.
4. Add between 2 to 4 tablespoons of half n’ half a little at a time while still beating the frosting on high. Do this until desired fluffiness is achieved. It should look smooth and creamy with small peaks.
At this stage, taste the frosting. If it has a gritty texture from the powdered sugar, that means you need more half n’ half. Add half n’ half a little at a time until the texture is smooth and creamy when you taste it. At this stage, you can also add more almond extract if you think it needs more almond flavor.
5. Add food coloring of your choice and get decorating! Yum!
Helen’s Czech Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 3 lb Russet potatoes, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
- 6 eggs
- 1 medium white onion, diced
- 3 celery ribs, diced
- 1 cup dill pickles, diced
- 1-2 cups Miracle whip or whipped salad dressing
- 2-4 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1/2-3/4 cup white sugar
- 2-4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2-3 tp salt
- 1/2-1 tp pepper
- paprika
Instructions
- Fill a medium pot with water and add about 1 tp salt. Boil over high heat for the potatoes.
- Fill a 3-quart sauce pan with water. Boiling over high heat for the eggs.
- Wash and peel the potatoes. Chop into 1/2 inch pieces.
- Dice the onion, celery, and pickles into small pieces.
- Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes to the medium pot and add your eggs to the sauce pan. Boil both for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, drain your eggs and refill the pot with cold water. The most important thing with potato salad is to get your eggs and potatoes cooled down fast. Set them aside.
- At 10 minutes, check your potatoes. You want them to be firm but not crunchy. When they are firm, cool them down by pouring the potatoes into a colander or strainer from the pot and running cold water over them. Put the potatoes back in the empty pot and cover with cold water. Set aside for 5 minutes. Repeat these steps a second time after 5 minutes and then set aside for 10-15 minutes. Be gentle with them throughout these steps.
- In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup Miracle Whip or whipped salad dressing, 2 tablespoons yellow mustard, 1/2 cup white sugar, and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. It should be tangy and sweet.
- Once your eggs are cool, dice your eggs into even pieces.
- Drain the potatoes and put them in a large cake pan. This will help the potatoes cool down even faster, and the salad will be easier to mix without mushing your potatoes.
- Sprinkle potatoes with about 1 tp salt and 1/2 tp pepper.
- Gently mix in the onions, celery, and pickles until evenly combined.
- Gently mix in the dressing until well combined.
- Gently mix in eggs until well combined.
- Now it’s time to taste it! The flavor should be tangy, a little sweet, and salty. The texture should be creamy and crunchy with the vegetables. If the flavor is weak or you taste mainly plain potato, mix another batch of dressing. You don’t have to make the same amount and adjust it for the flavors you are going for. You can also sprinkle the salad with more salt and pepper if that’s what it needs.
- Once you get it tasting the way you want, pop your salad into the fringe to finish cooling down and to let the flavors bled. This salad is usually better the second day, so it’s never a bad idea to make it ahead of time.
- Serve in your favorite bowl with a sprinkle of paprika on top!