smooth and creamy
Friday, April 01, 2011Nigel. Nigel. Nigel.
My friend, Jennifer, is a flight attendant. Jennifer was working a flight from New York to Venice when her path crossed with Nigel. Nigel boarded the plane with a container full of sugar cookies. Sugar cookies that he baked. (How darn NICE is that!) Jennifer described them as one of the best cookies she has ever tasted. Nigel told her that he has won many awards with those cookies. (How lucky were those flight attendants?!) Nigel emailed Jennifer the recipe.
These are Nigel's Sugar Cookies and his words:
I use three cookie sheets when I bake these cookies. You will also need a glass, about 3" across and completely smooth on the bottom.
I use three cookie sheets when I bake these cookies. You will also need a glass, about 3" across and completely smooth on the bottom. Preheat oven to 325˚ ( 350˚ in New Mexico for the elevation.)
Ingredients: (All at room temperature.)
1 stick sweet butter (same as unsalted) (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Mix together until very smooth and creamy. Then add:
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
Mix together until very smooth and creamy. Then add:
1 large egg
Mix together until very smooth and creamy. Then add:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Mix together until very smooth and creamy. Then add:
1 tsp vanilla
Mix together until very smooth and creamy.
Now, 1/2 cup all purpose flour in a separate bowl gets added to it:
1 teaspoon baking SODA
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix together and then add to the butter mixture.
1/2 cup at a time, add another 2 cups of all purpose flour.
All mixed together nice and smooth? Good. {I loved that part. It was like Nigel was talking to me.}
Roll the dough into balls the size of a large grape. {Thinking mine were a bit larger than a large grape.}I get 12 of these on a cookie sheet.
Here is the secret part: Take the glass and press it into the bowl of dough to put a film of oil on the bottom. Now take the glass and put it in a bowl of granulated sugar. The sugar will cling to the oil and leave a layer of granules on the bottom.
Now use the glass to squish the little balls of dough. This takes some practice. Sometimes each cookie takes two pressings with more sugar added each time.
Bake your first tray for 5 minutes. They are cooked when the edges show the slightest hint of even thinking about the merest possibility of turning brown.
If not cooked after 5 minutes add more cooking time in 30 second intervals.
One tray in the oven. One tray cooling. One tray being prepped. I get an average of 12 dozen cookies out of one batch.
Okay, so I made them. They really are unbelievable. They are thin (wondering if mine could have been even thinner, my glass had a bit of an arch) and crispy and you feel like you could eat a dozen. And of course, my kids LOVED them.
I did email Nigel to ask his permission to share his recipe. Nigel couldn't have been sweeter and funnier. He also did mention that he tweaks this recipe when he enters them in the state fair in order to meet requirements. The cookies have won blue ribbons 6 years in a row in New Mexico and another 2 in New York!
Wow. Thank you, Nigel!
I heard Charlie wake Andrew at 6 am to tell him to hurry and get up, time to find the Easter baskets. Andrew didn't buy it. But, I almost did.
Happy April Fools Day!
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