Last, but Not Least {Recipe: Grandma Jones' Sugar Cookie III aka Tennessee Sugar Cookies}

This is the third and final sugar cookie recipe I have from my grandmother. All three have different textures, the first one is chewy with crispy edges (my favorite), the second one is lighter and crispy, and this one is a little more dense and crispy. All are good, just depends on what you are in the mood for. 


Grandma Jones' Sugar Cookies III aka Tennessee Sugar Cookies 

Cream:
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar 

Add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Beat well.

Sift and Add:
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups four

Stir until well combined. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. After refrigeration, shape dough into walnut sized balls, then roll in granulated sugar, shredded coconut, or chopped walnuts or almonds*; press down with a fork or flat bottomed cup.  Bake at 375ºF for 10-12 minutes, or until edges turn light golden brown. 

*Note: Sprinkles can be added to the dough and/or pressed on top, in addition to rolling in sugar, for confetti cookies. 

Happy Baking!

Grandma Knows Best {Recipe: Grandma Jones' Sugar Cookies II}

This recipe is the second of three sugar cookie recipes I have from my grandmother. I was reluctant to try this one because of the cup of oil, but I'm glad I finally did  They are a light, crispy, not too sweet cookie. I made them for my kids and their friends and they were gone in 0.2 seconds. 

Grandma Jones's Sugar Cookies II

1 egg
1 cup oil
1 cube butter* (1/2 cup, softened)
1 cup sugar 
3 cups flour (sifted)
1/2 teaspoons soda in a little hot water (I used about a teaspoon)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350-375ºF. Beat egg, oil, butter, and sugar well. (I add the vanilla at this point as well) Then add the rest of the ingredients. (I sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, then added to the wet ingredients) Roll in a ball, then roll in sugar before baking. (I found that the cookies did not spread very much when baking, so I flattened them a bit with a flat bottomed cup dipped in sugar. The best results were to remove the cookies 5 minutes into baking, flatten, then returning to the oven to finish baking.) Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the bottoms get a light golden brown.

Cookies on the left were flattened after baking for 5 minutes.
The cookies on the right were flattened before baking.
As you can see, the ones on the right cracked a lot more
on the edges.

Yields about 3 dozen cookies.

*Note: Most of my grandmother's recipes for cookies call for "oleo" (margarine). I don't like using margarine, so that is the one ingredient change I make to her recipes. That and sometimes adding rainbow sprinkles, because sprinkles make everything better!:)

Enjoy!