Sugar Cookies

                Last year I thought it would be a good idea to make sugar cookies without using margarine. And while that is a great idea on many levels, I decided to make the “real deal” this year. It was well worth it—a taste of nostalgia. I have been using this recipe to make sugar cookies for as long as I can remember baking. Sometimes I would color the dough and make fancy patterns, but in more recent years I made colorful glaze. A tall pile of sugar cookies in all the colors of the rainbow was so exciting. And the best part of it for me was sharing them with my friends and family. The joy of good food is multiplied when I can share it and let others enjoy it too.

                This year, I did not buy food coloring, but I did get margarine especially for this recipe. I had not bought margarine in two years probably. The recipe needs only two sticks, and the other two sticks are now in the freezer. (Maybe for next year?!?) I did have colored nonpareils, and the cookies did have the riot of color that I wanted, despite not using colored glaze.

                But who could I share the cookies with? I did figure that part also. I met a fried for lunch, so she got some, and I also sent a package with cookies to my family. Those cookies are still in transit, but I am looking forward to hearing that they received the coolies.

                I am so glad I made “real” sugar cookies this year. It’s a once a year thing for me. Food is not just to sustain us physically. We attach all sorts of values and emotions to food, and those are important to recognize and understand too.

colorful nonpareils

lots of cookies

Chanukah Traditions

The Jewish holidays are always a time for cooking and baking yummy foods. One of my favorite Chanukah foods are sugar cookies. You are correct, you can have cookies on any holiday, but on Chanukah they are a special tradition for me.

Typically, the one time of the year I use margarine in baking is for making sugar cookies for Chanukah. I love making Chanukah-themed cookie shapes and glazing them with a simple powdered sugar-based glaze. I always had difficulty finding the perfect proportions of oil, flour, sugar, and other ingredients to make dough that has a good consistency for making shapes with cookie cutters without using margarine. Until this year.

This Sunday I wanted to make sugar cookies. I had forgotten to purchase margarine at the supermarket last week, and I had no intention to take the cold trip out again. So, as any determined person will do, I asked my sister-in-law if she had a margarine-less sugar cookie recipe. And in fact she did! The recipe did require some tweaking. I used less oil than it called for, and added some extra flour and sugar. Once they were baked, I realized I should have used less baking powder, because sugar cookies are not supposed to grow or get a little bubbly like these did.

I wish I could share the recipe with you…and the other people who have already asked for it. But, sadly, I did not measure my ingredients! I plan to remake the cookies, but this time measure the oil, flour, and sugar that I use. On the agenda in a coming week is to give you the margarine-less sugar cookie recipe. 

Before Glaze

After Glaze!!