Grandma's Recipes Part 2

Here's the Cheddar Dollar recipe I got from my grandma over Thanksgiving. The second recipe I tried from my grandma's stash was No Roll Sugar cookies. I told my students I would bake for them for Christmas and figured these would be fairly easy and delicious. I was right...so easy and so yummy!

Grandma's No Roll Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
colored or granulated sugar (tip for making your own colored sugar is below)

Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, almond, and egg; mix well. Add flour and soda in increments. Shape by teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll balls in colored or granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies. (I used a drinking glass with a flat bottom.) Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees.

After mixing everything, roll into teaspoon sized balls, and roll in the sugar

Flatten the cookies and bake

Creating your own sugar

The store only had green sugar, probably due to Christmastime and their stash was well picked over. I knew I needed red sugar too, so I decided to make my own. All you need is sugar and food coloring.

I put some sugar in a bag, add a few drops of your desired color, close the bag, and shake until it is well blended. I did this in a few steps until I was satisfied with the brightness of the red. Note: make it brighter than you think you want it. It will fade as it dries.

Once I was happy with the color, I dumped it into a bowl and stirred it every 20-30 minutes to prevent it from clumping.

Other notes: 1) Do this the day before. 2) I actually liked how my homemade sugar stuck to the dough better than the store bought sugar.

Even experienced bakers make mistakes... 

I forgot the baking soda in the last batch I made. The cookies didn't rise, but they were still yummy. The kids still ate them, but they were smaller and tasted more like shortbread cookies than sugar cookies. OOPS!