The Best Cookie Recipe

The best cookie recipe is Ethel’s Sugar Cookie, which has been passed down in my family for multiple generations. On pages 18 and 19 in the 1977 Betty Crocker cookbook, Ethel’s and Mary’s sugar cookie recipes share a page.

While Ethel’s recipe shares a page with instructions for Mary’s Sugar Cookies, Ethel’s is far superior. Before preparing, know that they do take at least an hour to chill, a selling point for many. The owner of Echo’s cookies, Echo, said, “I personally wouldn’t make these because they take quite a bit of time since you have to chill them for one hour or overnight.” Here is how you can make the best sugar cookies:

Ethel’s Sugar Cookie:

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup unsalted butter softened

1 cup sugar 

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1. Mix butter, shortening, sugar, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, and blend into egg mixture
3. Divide the dough into two parts.  Cover each with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour or overnight
4. Heat oven to 400 degrees
5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit on the counter for 15 to 30 minutes to soften to be able to roll, depending on the temperature of your kitchen
6. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thickness on a floured board
7. Cut into desired shapes and place an ungreased cookie sheet onto place on an ungreased baking sheet then bake for 6-8 minutes until cookies are a delicate golden color
8. Then pull them out, shut the oven off and put the cookies on a wire rack to cool so you can decorate them

The icing for Ethel’s sugar cookies:

1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 to 3 Tablespoons cream or milk

 food coloring or icing tints

1. Blended sugar, salt, and vanilla
2. Add 1 tablespoon of cream/milk at a time until the icing reaches a spreadable consistency 
3. Add food coloring
4. Spread on cookies with a spatula

Thalia, a junior at Northwest High School said,  “These are the best sugar cookies! They are buttery with a crunchy outside and gooey inside.” Below is the recipe for Mary’s sugar cookies, the recipe that shares a page with Ethel’s sugar cookies recipe in Betty Crocker’s cookbook. The recipe makes around 30 cookies. 

Mary’s Sugar Cookie:

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened 2 sticks

1 large egg at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla I used McCormick

½ teaspoon almond flavoring

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Mix sugar and butter
2. Add egg and flavorings; mix thoroughly
3. Stir dry ingredients together and blend in
4. Refrigerate for 2 hours
5. Heat oven to 350°F
6. Divide dough in half and roll 3/16″ thick on a lightly floured surface
7. Cut the cookies with the cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet or, if using parchment paper to roll out cookies, just place the parchment paper with cut cookies right onto a cookie sheet
8. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until delicately golden 

Mary’s cookies are so sweet and sugary that you don’t need frosting but can. Northwest culinary teacher Dana Means said,  “My friend shared a cookie recipe… called silverbell cookies which is my favorite type of cookie. It’s really easy, and it’s so sweet you don’t need to frost them. I like Mary’s cookies because they are like silverbell and they’re so sweet they don’t need frosted.”