Amish Sugar Cookies -- The Cookie That Earns Its Place on Marlene's December Counter

December. Cookie season. The KitchenAid has earned its place on the counter — it hasn't moved since November seventh and it won't move until February because December and January are baking months and the mixer is the engine that drives the operation. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Eggs. Vanilla. The five elements of cookie dough, the periodic table of December, and I am the chemist.

First batch: Marlene's chocolate chip cookies, browned butter. Three dozen. The base recipe, the standard, the cookie by which all other cookies are measured. I made them Saturday morning while the house was quiet — Noah sleeping, Emma sleeping, Jack in the backyard checking the cold frame in his pajamas and boots, which is how Jack greets December mornings, agriculture before breakfast. Kevin smelled the brown butter from upstairs and appeared in the kitchen with the instinct of a man who has been conditioned by years of Saturday baking to respond to the scent of toasted milk solids. He ate two warm from the sheet. I let him. Warm cookies on Saturday mornings are part of the contract.

Second batch: snickerdoodles. The cinnamon-sugar cookies that taste like childhood and roll in your fingers like velvet before they hit the baking sheet. The recipe is Marlene's — cream of tartar in the dough, which gives them the tang, the slight sourness that balances the sweetness, the thing that separates a good snickerdoodle from a sugar cookie with cinnamon on it. The difference is chemistry. The difference is cream of tartar. The difference is Marlene knowing that you need the acid to get the chew, and writing "c of t — DON'T SKIP" on the recipe card in letters large enough to read from across the kitchen.

The Christmas tree goes up this weekend. Kevin will drag it from the lot and set it in the stand and wrap the lights while I direct from the couch because tree placement is an architectural decision and I am the architect. The ornaments will come from the box in the attic — thirty years of collected ornaments, including the Baby's First Christmas ones for each kid, the Iowa State ornament from our first Christmas as a married couple, and the ceramic ear of corn that Mom gave me as a joke that I hung with complete sincerity because an ear of corn on a Christmas tree is not a joke in this family. It's a statement of values.

Between Marlene’s chocolate chip cookies and the snickerdoodles, there’s always a third batch — the one that rounds out the tin and holds its own without demanding anything. That’s where the Amish sugar cookies come in. No cream of tartar drama, no browned butter ceremony — just a soft, pillowy cookie that tastes like butter and vanilla and doing exactly what it was always meant to do, which is disappear quietly from the counter while Kevin swears he hasn’t touched anything.

Amish Sugar Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Servings: 48 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream the fats and sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter, vegetable oil, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar together on medium speed until light and well combined, about 2–3 minutes.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
4. Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
5. Mix the dough. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
6. Shape the cookies. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough and roll each into a smooth ball. Roll each ball in granulated sugar to coat, then place on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
7. Flatten and bake. Use the bottom of a glass or your palm to gently flatten each ball to about 1/2-inch thickness. Bake for 8–10 minutes, until the edges are just set and the tops look barely done. Do not overbake — they should look slightly underdone when you pull them.
8. Cool. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will firm up as they cool into soft, pillowy rounds.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 138 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 55mg