Sugar Cookies

July 9: National Sugar Cookie Day

Baking sugar cookies for someone special can surely brighten up his/her day, especially if the basic cookie dough is rolled in a rainbow of colorful crystals of sugar! Several scientific studies have been done about the physiological and psychological effects of color (in fact, this topic was Islander’s high school freshman science fair project, which won an honorable mention award). Celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day with colorfully sprinkled sugar cookies—the vibrant palette will also please the palate!

Recipe

(Adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• colored sugar crystals or coarse sugar

Directions

Cream the sugar and butter.  Mix in the vanilla and egg yolks. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture with the sugar mixture and blend well. Refrigerate the cookie dough for 15 minutes. Pinch out 48 one-inch balls from the dough.

Roll each cookie dough ball in sugar crystals/coarse sugar. Place cookie dough balls two inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until the cookie tops crack slightly. Remove from the oven, let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about five minutes and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.  Yield: 4 dozen.

Notes

• Islander burned the last batch of blue sugar cookies. So they were trashed before the final photo shoot.