Sugar Cookies From Scratch

This was the first time I’ve made sugar cookies from scratch; I usually buy pre-made dough at the grocery store. But this particular project called for that little something extra special…and I already had all the ingredients and didn’t really feel like running out to the store.

One of my friends recently bought Pioneer Woman's cookbook and tried out her sugar cookie recipe and said it was delicious. So, I was going to use Pioneer Woman’s recipe until I read through it and saw the warning at the end stating they were very crumbly and not intended to travel…that just wasn’t going to work this time, you’ll understand later.

So I decided to use the Wilton Roll-Out Cookie Recipe from the Wilton Cookie Exchange book. After all, a cookie exchange implies some level of travel. The recipe is also on their website: http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Roll-Out-Cookie-Recipe

I found it odd that the recipe only called for one egg…I also found it odd that the dough was so incredibly crumbly. As I was mixing the ingredients I realized it wasn’t really coming together… I’m used to cookie doughs (mostly oatmeal raisen, oatmeal white chocolate cranberry, and chocolate cookies) where the dough blends together into one large gooey blob. I contemplated adding another egg, but I decided to trust the recipe and make the most of it.

Is sugar cookie dough supposed to be crumbly? If anyone knows, please let me know, because I found it very weird.

I tried to knead all the crumbles together into a disk, so that I could roll the dough out…it mostly worked. Rolling the dough would make the edges start to crack and crumble so I could only get a few cookies out of the center of the dough from each roll. Eventually I got all the cookies cut out.

This particular recipe said not to refrigerate the dough…also something I found a little different. After baking, some cookies held their shape perfectly, some expanded and had some texture on top. Since all the dough was room temperature, I’m assuming it must have been the thickness of the cookies that determined the baking outcome.

Note all the different sizes, that was not on purpose.

All in all, they turned out well and they taste wonderful (I had a scrap cookie that I used as a taste test)!

Coconut Macaroons

I love coconut! And I love coconut macaroons!

They were always a special treat and they always seemed so elegant and a bit mysterious when I was younger. Probably because they aren’t all that common; they seem to only be found at a few bakeries and the Ghirardelli stores in very large malls. This led me to believe they must be difficult and complicated to make.

Coconut macaroons are also one of my Mom’s favorite cookies. So when I came across a recipe, I took note and thought it might be worth the effort to try for Mother’s Day or my Mom’s birthday one year. However, I either didn’t have the time around those events or forgot about them…

…That is until May of last year when I was looking for cookie recipes to take to my family reunion. Because the reunion was later in the weekend, I had the entire first half of the weekend to play around in the kitchen so I gave the coconut macaroons a try.

They were actually pretty SIMPLE and EASY!

And they were a HUGE HIT! Especially with my Great Aunt, she LOVED them.

So when my cousin’s family came to visit this summer and I found out they would be stopping by to see my Great Aunt, I packaged up some coconut macaroons for them to give her. Well…my Great Aunt shared her cookies with them (or they snuck some on the way there). Either way, my cousin LOVED the coconut macaroons as well and asked for the recipe.

Because I’m a slacker, or because I’m busy, or because it was all part of a greater plan all along, my cousin didn’t get the recipe until she got a box full of Christmas cookies in the mail that had the recipe attached to the tin with the coconut macaroons.

Not all of those macaroons fit into the box sent to my cousin and I took the leftovers to my parents’ house for Christmas, where my sister-in-law tried some that were dipped in chocolate…and she LOVED them too.

I made them for the Sweet Treat Party and one of my friends also became a fan.

The only reason I’m sharing all of this is to let you know that if you make these cookies, people will LOVE them and maybe start to ask for them and you’ll probably have to start doubling and tripling the recipe for there to be enough to go around ;)

Give them a try, it’s really not that hard. After you make a lot of batches, you’ll probably be able to work on the recipe from memory or play around with it and try new things. I have definitely tweaked and modified and still had good results; I even made the recipe with gluten-free flour and they turned out great!

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Coconut Macaroons

1 small package (7 oz.) flaked coconut (more than 2 1/2 cups, but less than 2 3/4)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (can be substituted with a gluten-free baking flour)
¼ teaspoon salt
3 egg whites
½ teaspoon vanilla extract (can be substituted with ¼ teaspoon almond extract)

Optional:
Chocolate bark/candy coating
OR
2 oz. semisweet chocolate (chopped) and ½ teaspoon shortening

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (DO NOT FORGET THIS or you’ll have a heck of a time trying to get the cookies off the cookie sheet and they may or may not resemble a cookie at that point).

Place coconut, sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Add in egg whites and vanilla and stir with a wooden spoon (cheap plastic spatulas WILL break).

Scoop the dough into rounded ball-like shapes onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. It’s easiest if you have a cookie dough scoop, ideally about a teaspoon size scoop or if you use larger that’s fine you may just need to bake the macaroons a little longer. (If you don’t have a cookie dough scoop, just use spoons.)

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges and portions of the tops are golden brown (I sometimes check the bottom of a couple of cookies as well to make sure the bottoms are completely golden brown). I sometimes have to go even longer than the 25 minutes if I’ve used a larger cookie dough scoop.

Place on a cooling rack and let cool. Then enjoy!

OR

Cover the macaroons in chocolate.

The easiest way is to melt the chocolate bark (sometimes called candy coating depending where you purchase it) according to the directions on the package. Usually there are directions for the microwave or the stovetop, the microwave is easy and fast.

Another way is to create your own chocolate coating by melting the chopped semisweet chocolate and shortening in a saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth.

Then dip the macaroons or drizzle the chocolate over the macaroons and place on wax paper to allow the chocolate to set.
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Chocolate or no chocolate, they’re pretty darn good. I promise…you can ask my cousin or my sister-in-law, or my Great Aunt ;)