RECIPE: Amish Sugar Cookies
These easy-to-make cookies simply melt in your mouth! I've passed the recipe around to many friends. After I gave the recipe to my sister, she entered the cookies in a local fair and won the "best of show" prize! --Sylvia Ford, Kennett, Missouri
TOTAL TIME: Prep: 10 min. Bake: 10 min./batch
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugars. Beat in eggs until well blended. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; gradually add to creamed mixture.
Drop by small teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: about 5 dozen.
Salted butter and a splash of extract (try almond!) make these extra flavorful.
If you like your treats on the sweeter end of the spectrum, add a pinch of coarse sugar to the tops of these light and airy cookies.
Why cream of tartar? Baking soda needs an acidic ingredient to create the gas bubbles that make baked goods rise and lighten. Cream of tartar (aka tartaric acid) provides that in this recipe. Yay, chemistry!
[Taken from https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/amish-sugar-cookies]
Jan. 2018. "Small teaspoonfuls" - I had good results with halving my purple scooper. And with six-plus cups of flour and sugar you'll get a lot of cookies.
Aug. 2019. 8 minutes seems to be about right for the nice light fluffy texture. They won't get brown on top, just a little on the bottom.
May 2021. With my melon baller, I got 102 cookies. But the dough came out crumbly, so I didn't roll them into balls or sugar them. Maybe a little less flour?