Tuesday, December 9, 2008

TWD: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

For your consideration: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 146-147 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorie.

And there was much rejoicing. Yum yum yum yum yum! FINALLY! A TWD recipe that was easy to make, with no exotic or expensive ingredients (like nuts) AND it actually tasted great, which is always a plus in my book. I was feeling more than a little discouraged over the last few TWD recipes and was dreading making any more "eh, metza metz" things that didn’t put my ingredients to their best use. Q'est que c'est metza metz? It's Italian slang for so-so (which you say while rotating your hand back and forth).

These cookies were such a refreshing change! I made the dough last weekend when I made the Linzer Sables - I also completely trashed the kitchen in the process. I made all three TWD cookies simultaneously; the sables, these sugar cookies and the buttery jam cookies that are next week’s offering and just got them all knocked out at once. I also made the dough for Shirley Corriher’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Bakewise which we've just dished out, sugared up and popped in the oven as we speak.

I grated the rind of an orange into these cookies and decided to do the slice and bake method since I did the cookie cutter thing with the sables and was over that action. I shaped them into a square shape and threw them in the freezer (for 5 days) wrapped in waxed paper until I could get to them (in other words, as today's deadline approached.)

Yesterday I pulled them out and sliced them into ¼” disks and topped them off with Turbinado (raw) sugar. They smelled heavenly and as the scent wafted through the house, the kids were chomping at the bit waiting to tear into them. After they ate their Lentil Soup (coming soon) they were allowed to get at the cookies. They LOVED them! Not too sweet and a very interesting flavor.

Many thanks to Ulrike of Küchenlatein for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with it, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s version of Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostess’s blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.



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20 comments:

  1. Your cookies look delicious, and how original to make them square. I liked the two I sampled, but froze all the rest for Christmas. I baked the two jam cookies together, along with some gingerbread cookies, and these sugar cookies. Just had to wash the flour bowl and measuring cups one time, which was a huge bonus!
    Nancy

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  2. You were a cookie baking fiend huh? I do not have the patience to do more than 1 recipe at a time. Love the square shape and raw sugar makes everything classy! ;)
    Clara @ iheartfood4thought

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  3. Forget the cookies, we need to talk about all your Silpats! I am totally jealous and need to get about five more for my kitchen. :)

    But back to the cookies--glad you liked them! I thought they were fab too, and next time will probably keep things simple and go with a sprinkling of sugar on top like you did.

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  4. Nothing better than a sugar cookie! They look great!

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  5. Wow, you are a vision of cookie-baking efficiency! Love the orange rind and the turbinado sugar on top. Glad that you didn't have to waste any nuts on these, and that they were better than "metza metz" for you (which is my favorite of my grandmother's quasi Italian expressions, along with "gabeesh?" (do you understand me?) and "les ay ee" (leave her alone)).

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  6. Wow you made that many batches of cookies in one day! You are amazing. My back starts to hurt after two recipes LOL I loved this recipe too! I have to agree that often the recipes are so much work and always seem to require a trip to the store. This one didn't and I willl definitely make them again

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  7. they look really cute and inviting in the square shape! the turbinado sugar looks great. glad you enjoyed them:)

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  8. There's a great, different fun take on these cookies!

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  9. Ha ha - I did the exact same thing - that is, I made three batches of dough at the same time. I think it's more time efficient, don't you?

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  10. Great cookies!!! I love the square shape!!

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  11. I agree with the above comment. you are amazing to have done all three! I like the square cookies. They look like little cinnamon toasts. I just love your blog. It is really one of the best.

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  12. square!! haha. *gosh i sound like an infant* but they were sure good! not too sweet is very true! glad that your family enjoyed these.

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  13. I love your square shapes! I didn't get to make them this week. I have a lot to catch up on but hubby is now sick so another weekend may be trashed. Will I ever get a Christmas tree up? :( I wish you could just pass me one of these cookies through the puter. I need something to pep me up! I bet your kids loved them! December is such a fun month for them.

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  14. Lovely. I like the sugar in the raw topping and the square shapes!

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  15. I'd eat ten bowls of lentil soup to get at those cookies! They look great!

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  16. You are one clever and organized baker. I agree that it was nice to have a recipe that didn't require a special trip to the store with a stop at the ATM machine.

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  17. I love the square cookies, Lisa! Great job.

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