Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies (Pg 87)

I love baking so much that I get really excited about things that most people couldn't care less about. Like new cookie sheets!

I ordered these from QVC last week and I tried them out for the first time today. Not to sound like a commercial, but I totally love them. They come in fun colors, they are non-stick, and I don't have to bother with parchment paper. Also, I have some issues with my oven because the heat is very uneven, and these baking sheets really helped distribute the heat evenly so all the cookies on the sheet came out the same! Seriously, this is so exciting for me.

For comparison's sake I made one batch on one of my regular old cookie sheets and it came out kind of crappy. The entire texture of the cookie was off, and it didn't look nearly as pretty.

I promise they didn't pay me to say all that, but now onto the cookie. This is one lovely cookie. The process is a bit much for what is at the end a pretty basic and simple cookie, but it's so worth it.

The most annoying part is zesting the lemon. Have you ever zested a lemon? Not so much fun. And I thought it a bit strange to have lemon zest and lemon juice in a sugar cookie. It seems counterintuitive. But who am I to question the recipe?

The other weird part was that after dropping the cookie (from an ice cream scoop) onto the cookie sheet and flattening it slightly, you sprinkle it with sanding sugar. And because, obviously, one coating of sanding sugar is not enough, you brush it with a wet pastry brush and sprinkle more sanding sugar.

I have to say this whole sanding sugar process is not entirely necessary. Again, for the sake of comparison, I made some where I only did one sprinkling of sanding sugar. There is a noticable difference in the way the cookie looks - it is a lot prettier with two sprinklings of sugar - but it doesn't really affect the flavor of the cookie at all. It's purely cosmetic.

Of course, we all know that we eat with our eyes first, so why not go all the way and make the cookies as pretty as possible? I say go for it. This is a beautiful cookie. I like that it's not all smooth and perfect looking; I guess that's why it's called "Old Fashioned." It has that sort of rustic, homemade old fashioned look. With sparkles, of course. Lovely. And it tastes fantastic. The lemon balances out the sweetness so nicely and gives that nice little zest. And thanks to my lovely new baking sheets distributing the heat so evenly and perfect, the texture comes out nice and chewy with a little bit of a crunch.

The best part is that after you've zested your lemon and squeezed it for the mere tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, you can juice the rest of the lemon and make some lemonade. Nevermind that it's the middle of January and most of the country is experiencing record breaking low temperatures, a snack of old fashioned sugar cookies and freshly squeezed lemonade will bring you back to the balmy days of summer. So lovely.

Yield:
Recipe predicts: 1.5 dozen
Actual: 28 cookies (more than 2 dozen, yay!)

9 recipes down, 166 to go.