The Easiest Sugar Cookies

This is the sugar cookie recipe I grew up with. It makes delicious, soft, cakey cookies that are perfectly sweet. But the dough is pretty wet, and it was always such a pain to roll out. It stuck to everything, and I ended up adding a ton of extra flour trying to prevent that. I ended up not making them for years because they were just such a pain.

Then one day it hit me - stop rolling them! Now I just drop scoops of dough on the baking sheet, flatten them with a glass, and call it a day. 

Super easy, super quick, and now I can have my favorite sugar cookies again without the hassle.

Sugar Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen depending on size

• 2/3 Cup Shortening
• 1 Cup Sugar, plus extra for flattening
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 3 Cups Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/3 Cup Milk
• Extra sprinkles, colored sugar, or regular table sugar for sprinkling.

1. Cream shortening and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well until combined.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. Add half of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix well.
4. Add the milk and mix until combined.
5. Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir until combined.
6. Place small scoops (a tablespoon or two) of dough onto ungreased baking sheets.
7. Dip a flat bottomed glass into the extra sugar and flatten the scoops until they're about 1/4" thick. Be sure to dip in the sugar before flattening each cookie so the glass won't stick to the dough.
8. Sprinkle with additional sprinkles or sugar.
9. Bake in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes or until they just start browning on the bottom, rotating sheets halfway though the baking time.
10. Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Please ignore the fact that my cookies have the faintest orange hue. My son wanted orange cookies but I didn't want to add the entire bottle of food coloring, so they were just barely tinted orange and ended up looking a little strange. Yours will be regular sugar-cookie-colored, I promise!

Hope you enjoy!

Linking up with Thrifty Thursday, The Cottage Market