Sour Cream Cutout Cookies

At first I wasn’t going to post this recipe because it gave me such trouble, so all I have is this iphone photo. After I tasted a cookie, however, I decided I needed to share. These are tasty and softer than many others cookies of this type.

The recipe comes from Fine Cooking Magazine from Dec 2016, and it makes a huge batch, about 5 dozen cookies depending on how big you make them.

So the problems . . . at first I didn’t read that I had to make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate, so I had to bake them a day later than I wanted to. Then I made the dough, let it rest in the fridge, and started rolling them out . . . and they were too soft to get off the counter! Argh! So back in the fridge with the dough, and I rolled them out right onto the parchment paper, cut the shapes, and got rid of the excess dough. This method worked better. Eventually I found that I could roll them out on the counter if I used more flour than I thought I would need.

Oh yeah, then the first batch I put in the oven got too brown in some places – so watch for that, and don’t roll them as thinly if that happens to you.

And the recipe says to refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes before baking, but I only did this once before realizing it would take the rest of my life to bake all these cookies if I had to wait half an hour for each little pan (I have a small oven, and a small fridge, so it really could have taken forever.)

Oh, and I wasn’t very patient with the decorating . . .

But the successes outweigh the problems, believe it or not! I now have lots of delicious, pretty cookies that I’m happy to share.

What you need:

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, and more for rolling out
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• icing (I used half of this recipe)
• sprinkles for decoration (optional)

What you do:

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar for about 2 minutes; it should become light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Alternately add one third of the dry ingredients then one third of the sour cream until it is all mixed in. The dough will be quite sticky; make sure you don’t over mix it.
5. Divide the dough into three pieces, forming a disc, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 8-24 hours (I actually kept one of mine for a few days). You could freeze the dough for up to a month, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight.
6. Preheat the oven to 400F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Work quickly with the dough so it stays cold – if it gets too soft put it in the fridge again. Heavily flour the rolling surface with flour. Roll half of one ball of dough (putting the other half in the fridge) to a thickness of about half a centimetre. Dip the cookie cutter in flour and cut out your shapes, then transfer the cookies to the baking sheet, giving them some space to spread as they bake.
8. If you can, refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes. Otherwise, just bake them for 6-8 minutes, two pans at a time, flipping the pans around half way through.
9. Place the baked cookies on cooling racks, and allow to cool completely before icing and decorating.