Granny’s Old Fashioned Sugar Cookie Recipe A Well Tested Recipe
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Granny’s Sugar Cookies are melt-in-your-mouth good and super easy to make. Dress these cookies up for any occasion by using colored sugar crystals. These drop cookies look so pretty on a plate and go great with a cup of coffee or hot tea.
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
When you think of sugar cookies, you may picture the cut-out variety which are elaborately decorated. However, this recipe is much less time-consuming and tastes just as great.
This recipe came from Granny H, our mom’s mother, who is also responsible for this Double Fudge Fanciful Chocolate Cake.
These could also be considered an Amish sugar cookie with one exception, Granny’s are made with margarine instead of butter. This makes our version a bit softer and chewier but if you’d prefer to use butter, go for it. The cookies will likely be a bit crispier than those made with margarine.
Ingredient List
- Margarine, softened
- Granulated Sugar
- Vegetable Oil
- Confectioners’ sugar
- All Purpose Flour
- Cream of Tartar
- Baking Soda
- Salt
How to Make Drop Sugar Cookies
Step by Step Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream the margarine, granulated sugar, oil, eggs and powdered (confectioner’s) sugar together. A stand mixer or electric mixer work best.
- In separate bowl, sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
- Blend dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.
- Drop sugar cookie dough by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. (We use parchment paper on top of the baking sheet.)
- Flatten each cookie slightly with bottom of drinking glass dipped in sugar (use any color you’d like).
- Bake until slightly brown around edges, approximately 9-11 minutes.
- Let cool on baking sheet for one minute before moving to wire rack.
- If desired, instead of colored sugar, top with a frosting and sprinkles once cooled.
For the full recipe for drop sugar cookies, scroll to the bottom of this post.
Recipe FAQs
- The dough for these Amish sugar cookies might be a bit soft once mixed. If it’s a bit sticky, you can add another 1/2 to 3/4 cup of flour.
- The original recipe calls for both sugar and powdered sugar. Sugar is granulated (basic sugar) while powdered sugar is also known as confectioner’s sugar – the fine white sugar that is used in icing, etc.
- You can use a fancy cookie scoop to get these onto a pan or simply use a spoon and butter knife.
- These cookies can stick to the pan so you might want to use parchment paper or one of those silicon baking mats. If you do just use a cookie sheet, be sure to let them rest for just a minute out of the oven before you take them off the pan.
- For a list of some of our pantry staples and kitchen essentials, check out our Amazon Store here.
MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES
- Grandma’s Three Layer Chocolate Squares
- Dainty Log Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips
- Crock Pot 7 Layer Bars
- Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Salted Nut Squares
- French Buttercream Cookies
- Stamped Cookies – Almond Shortbread Recipe
Our friend Jent over at Farmwife Feeds shared some of her favorite cookie recipes for Santa here.
Granny’s Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup margarine
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Sugar – regular or colored sugar crystals
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cream together margarine, sugar, oil, eggs, powdered sugar.
- Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- Add sifted, dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well.
- Drop by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet.
- Flatten each cookie with a glass dipped in sugar.
- Bake until slightly browned, about 9 to 11 minutes depending on your oven.
- Let cool on baking sheet for 1 minute before transferring to cooling rack.
Notes
- This recipe makes about 6 dozen cookies.
- The dough for these Amish sugar cookies might be a bit soft once mixed. If it’s a bit sticky, you can add another 1/2 to 3/4 cup of flour.
- The original recipe calls for both sugar and powdered sugar. Sugar is granulated (basic sugar) while powdered sugar is also known as confectioner’s sugar – the fine white sugar that is used in icing, etc.
- You can use a fancy cookie scoop to get these onto a pan or simply use a spoon and butter knife.
- These cookies can stick to the pan so you might want to use parchment paper or one of those silicon baking mats. If you do just use a cookie sheet, be sure to let them rest for just a minute out of the oven before you take them off the pan.
- The nutritional information below is auto-calculated and can vary depending on the products used.
Interesting! My grandmother had an identical recipe (titled “White cookies” in her notebook) which differs only in calling for the dough to be chilled before forming. It’s fun to wonder how far back we’d need to go in order to see the common origin for this recipe.
Incidentally grandma neglected to include the baking instructions- which you have provided, so thank you!
Grandmas were great at vague recipe descriptions!
These are delicious! Could these be made as a bar cookie? If so, what size pan and for how long? Thank you.
We haven’t tried them as a bar cookie…but we may now!
I hope that you do and post it since I am new to baking!