Rolled Sugar Cookies:-

I am happy to announce that my second attempt to bake cookies is a grand success. First time it became an unsuccessful outcome. But this time all the three of us (My husband, my daughter and me) enjoyed the soft, sweet and toasty cookies till the last bite. The taste of the cookies had just taken me 14-15 years back to my home town in Bengal, where the Bakery man used to sell these kinds of cookies, on his mobile cart, door to door. We used to call it “Sandesh Biscuit”. The taste of the cookies made me totally nostalgic with all those childhood memories. I realised that unlike other memories, few tastes are there which never fades and the association between the taste and memory gives birth of a sweet trance from which we never want to return and we just want to inhale the full charm of it.

Before elucidating the baking process of the Rolled Sugar Cookies, let us know little bit information about Cookies.

By definition, a cookie can be any of a variety of hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes, either crisp or soft. Originally called "little cakes," cookies are made with sweet dough or batter, baked in single-sized servings and eaten out-of-hand. The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning "small or little cake." The first cookies were created by accident. Cooks used a small amount of cake batter to test their oven temperature before baking a large cake. “Each country has its own word for ‘Cookie.’ What we know as cookies are called Biscuits in England and Australia, in Spain they're Galletas, Germans call them Keks or Plätzchen for Christmas cookies, and in Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including Amaretti and Biscotti, and so on. Biscuit comes from the Latin word Bis coctum, which means, ‘twice baked’.”In America, a cookie is described as a thin, sweet, usually small cake. The first American cookie was originally brought to this country by the English, Scots, and Dutch immigrants. The simple "butter cookies" strongly resemble the English tea cakes and the Scotch shortbread.

Here I am attaching the detail of the six basic cookie styles:-

“The earliest cookie-style cakes are thought to date back to seventh-century Persia, one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. There are six basic cookie styles, any of which can range from tender-crisp to soft. A drop cookie is made by dropping spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet. Bar cookies are created when a batter or soft dough is spooned into a shallow pan, then baked, cooled and cut into bars.

Hand-formed (or moulded) cookies are made by shaping dough by hand into small balls, logs, crescents and other shapes.

Pressed cookies are formed by pressing dough through a COOKIE PRESS (or PASTRY BAG) to form fancy shapes and designs.

Refrigerator (or icebox) cookies are made by shaping the dough into a log, which is refrigerated until firm, then sliced and baked. Rolled cookies begin by using a rolling pin to roll the dough out flat; then it is cut into decorative shapes with COOKIE CUTTERS or a pointed knife.

Other cookies, such as the German SPRINGERLE, are formed by imprinting designs on the dough, either by rolling a special decoratively carved rolling pin over it or by pressing the dough into a carved COOKIE MOLD.”

Ref: Oxford Encyclopaedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press: New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 317-8)

Ingredients:-

Sugar- 1 Cup

Butter or Margarine- 1 Cup softened

Milk- 3 Table spoon

Vanilla- 1 tea spoon

Egg- 1

All purpose flour- 3 Cups

Baking Powder- 1½ tea spoon

Salt- ½ tea spoon
For decoration I used- Choco Chips, Chocolate rice and Mixed nuts.

Method:-

In large bowl, combine sugar, butter, milk and egg; blend well. Add flour, baking powder and salt; mix well. Cover the plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour for easier handling.

Heat oven to 400F.On lightly floured surface, roll out 1/3 of the dough at a time to 1/8 thickness. Keep remaining dough refrigerated. Cut with flower cookie cutter. Place each 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

 If desired, sprinkle with sugar.

Note: The decorated cookies as shown in the picture are decorared before baking.

Bake at 400F for 5-9mnts or until edges are light brown. Immediately remove from the cookie sheets. Decorate as desired.You can decorate it with the coloured icing.

Imp Note: 1. The shaped cookies which I baked first, (you can see in the above  and below Pictures) I baked on the silver foil and greased it before baking. Therefore the laying side of the Cookie caught the burn colour very fast. Therefore ALWAYS BAKE THEM ON THE UNGREASED COOKIE SHEET (PERCHMENT OR WAX PAPER) 2. Don’t bake the cookies more than 6-8mnts. If you think that the cookies need more time to cook, turn off the oven, keep the cookies inside the oven for few mnts more.

The measurements I have given you will get approximately 3 to 4 dozen cookies. The count will be depending on the size and shapes of the cookies. If you don’t want to bake all the cookies at a time then you can store the cookies dough in the refrigerator for a couple of days more. But whenever you store it wrap it tightly and nicely with a plastic sheet. Before baking take out the dough and give it time to catch the room temperature.

The baked cookies should be stored in an air tight container. The cookies stay fresh for 1-2 weeks, may be more. But we never get a chance to watch, as the tasty bites disappear in no time.