Sugary spices: Vanilla Sugar Cookies

So I decided to start of the year (in February, wow, I know) by cooking these delicious sugar coated goodness that I have adapted from the ever-so lovely Laura from Laura in the Kitchen. These cookies are meant to be on crunchier side, and are perfect for eating with tea or just as a little snack. A little snack... hehe. Well, that didn't go as planned. ;)

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Start by mixing all the dry goods, setting that aside in a small bowl, and then mixing the wet ones in a larger one. And then, bam, mix 'em both together, and wa-lah! :)

Make sure the dough looks kind of likes this. Ah, even as I'm typing this I feel like I can smell this. I think I'm hallucinating.

Scoop out 1 tbsp. balls of dough and set them on parchment paper (or aluminum foil, but spray it with cooking spray before you set the cookies on them)

To officially make them sugar cookies, we got to cover them with the one and only sugar. Just coat 'em and plop 'em back down on the baking sheet.

Bake the beautiful sugar-coated dough and let it indulge in the oven for about 18 minutes (15 minutes if you're using aluminum foil).

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

-1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

-1/2 tsp of baking powder

-1/4 tsp of baking soda

-1/4 tsp of salt

- 1 cup of butter at room temperature(preferably unsalted, but salted worked fine for me too)

- 1 cup of granulated white sugar

- 1 large egg

- 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. You could also use almond extract, but it would give it a much stonger taste that I personally do not desire

- 1/4 cup of granulated sugar for rolling the balls of dough in

Instructions:

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets (I only required one though; it depends on the size of your dough balls) with parchment paper or aluminum foil (greased).

- In a small bowl, combine the first four ingredients (dry) and set it aside.

-In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. I recommend melting the butter in the microwave for about 15 second to ensure that the butter-sugar combination doesn't become grainy. Then add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until everything is creamy and fully combined.

-Use a 1 tbsp. cooking scoop or just a tablespoon, form you cookie dough balls and roll them is the granulated sugar. Place them back on the cooking sheet a few inches apart and bake for about 18 minutes on the parchment (15 on the aluminum)

- Let it cool for about 5 minutes and move it to a wire rack for it to cool completely.

-And enjoy! :D

Side Effects: A constant want for more of these sugar cookies...

Raida Khan

PS. Guess what? :)