Sugar-Dusted Drop Sugar Cookies

Finals are done, I’m on break, and I’m reunited with my stand mixer; everything is now good.

But I have been procrastinating. I’ve had bakers block for the past few weeks due to those 5 hour calculus study sessions, but when I got home I had no idea what to make.

I know I wanted to make something festivy and Christmasy for you all, but I honestly had no idea what to make. Then I remembered sugar cookies are both festive and easy! Well, the traditional sugar cookie isn’t easy; it’s labor intensive and I didn’t want to do too much, so I found a recipe for drop sugar cookies. 

These are as easy as making chocolate chip cookies. Just cream the butter and sugar, add some egg yolks (which gives these a nice pale yellow color) and vanilla, mix in your flour mixture, scoop, roll in sugar and plop onto a tray.

The edges hold firm as the center is nice and soft. The raw sugar crystals lend a little bit of a crunch factor that is really nice too. I have never used raw sugar before, so I wasn’t totally sure how it was going to turn out. But after crunching down on the sugar crystals I realized I like the raw sugar coating more than sugar cookies rolled in regular white sugar.

Today also marks the 12^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. I have been bad and haven’t participated in the countdown for several weeks. That’s what college does to you, it takes away from the important things in life. I kid… sort of. So here is my contribution to the last week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. Thank you Brenda for hosting such a fun blog hop!

Sugar-Dusted Drop Sugar Cookies 
Slightly adapted from Dramatic Pancake
Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients
3-4 tbsp. raw sugar (for rolling)
½ cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 egg yolks, room temperature
¾ tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. cream of tartar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Place the raw sugar in a bowl and set aside

Cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed in the bowl of a stand mixer until light in color and fluffy in texture. Beat the egg yolks in one at a time. Add the vanilla. Scrape the bowl down as necessary.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Go back to the stand mixer and turn the speed down to low. Add half of the flour mixture and beat. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, repeat with remaining flour mixture. Turn the speed up to medium and beat until the dough sort of comes together like play-dough.

Portion out the dough by using a small/medium cookie scoop. Release the dough and roll the tops of the dough in the raw sugar. Place cookie dough sugar side up onto the prepared baking tray. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the tops have become slightly crackled. Cool on the tray for two minutes before removing onto a cooling rack.