Happy New Year to us all!
Unfortunately, I’m not starting out with a bang, but instead with a bad cold. When I have a cold I always get weird food cravings. Is that normal, does everyone do that?
Whatever the excuse, I was definitely craving these wonderful cookies, in fact my favorite cookie I’ve ever sampled - Anna’s Cookies. My friend Anna recently came to a knitting party with a little tin of innocent looking butter cookies. She added that tin to the table already covered in a variety of yummy food and Christmas goodies where those little cookies could have easily been overlooked. This was not the case – they literally disappeared so quickly I was lucky to snag a couple. Addictive doesn’t even begin to cover it. I begged for the recipe, really begged – it was sort of pathetic. She had to take a picture of the recipe with her phone and send it the second she got home because I was so obnoxious. It’s easy to blame the bad cold and sick person food cravings, but I wanted those cookies badly enough to give up the comfort of my couch and that says a lot. Plus Richard is leaving for Los Angeles for the semester, and what could be nicer than opening your suitcase and finding a stow-away box of homemade cookies. So I made Anna’s Cookies.
The recipe calls for margarine and absolutely stipulates that butter may not be substituted. That was about to change. I vowed that when I had my own home I would never let margarine in the door and one little cookie recipe wasn’t going to change that. It’s a good thing; the butter made the cookies extra crispy and delicious. Honestly the only thing wrong with this recipe is that the dough has to chill for two hours before you can bake them; which means no immediate gratification. But here’s a promise - the end result is worth the wait. Absolutely do not start a new year’s diet (if you are even contemplating such an awful thing) until you try these cookies. They’re the best. Thanks for sharing Anna!
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 cups flour
Directions
Beat butter, sugar and oil in a mixing bowl until creamy.
Add confectioners sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix well.
Add cream of tarter, salt, baking soda, and flour and mix until thoroughly combined.
Cover cookie dough and chill at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Roll cookie dough into small balls approximately one inch in diameter.
Dip in sugar and place on a baking sheet 2 inches apart.
Dip a glass in sugar and flatten balls to ½ inch cookies.
Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges.
Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a minute or two.
Remove cookies to wax or parchment paper to cool.
Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 75 cookies, but you’ll eat at least 4 before they’re even cool!