Sugar Cookies for the June Cupcake book club

Recently, a friend asked me what weight a cup is and I referred her to a web page from one of my last Christmas cookie swap fellow bloggers.  When I received her delicious cookies, I looked up her blog and that was when I discovered she was a fellow American living in Scotland.  Her blog has been really helpful to me because of her lists of converted weights and measures.  The differences in how folks in the UK and the US cook are much different than just pounds versus grams and this chart is fantastic!  So, I listed her information on my "pages" and I believe I informed her of that at the time....!  This information can be found listed as American Cupcake Abroad/Conversion Chart.  It is a wonderful reference when baking and I continue to be grateful for this!

But when I looked up her blog this time I discovered:

 1. She has moved back to the States after living in the UK for 10 years!   (I wonder what that was like?)

2.  She has included a book club in her blog!   This intrigued me, so I ordered the book!  One major problem though - when I decided I wanted to read the book and contribute a recipe based on how ever the book inspired me, it was June 1 and the rules were you had to read the book, decide and act upon the recipe or whatever you wanted to do and post your blog to share with American Cupcake Life by June 10.  Uh oh!

I immediately ordered The Union Street Bakery by Mary Ellen Taylor and received it 2 days later.  When I first started reading the story, it reminded me of the books by Debbie Macomber. Nice stories about tragedy, challenge and love.  Don't get me wrong, I love Debbie Macomber's books but they are just a bit too "feel good" sometimes.  But I was determined to finish the whole book club project......

And then, the book grabbed me and I could not put it down.  All I will say is it is about a very successful career woman who loses her job and has to go home to help her family's business, which happens to be a bakery. She had a tough start to her life  by being abandoned by her mother but was taken in by the family who owns the bakery she now has to help save.  A good enough story in itself, but then throw in history, journals, ghosts and slavery!  Wow!  The book became impossible to put down and I highly recommend it!

Finished the book on Friday, June 6 and decided to make sugar cookies.  They are mentioned many times in the book and I have never made such a simple cookie and decided it was about time!  The recipe in the book only makes 2 dozen though and called for ingredients I did not have to hand. So I used the internet and found a fabulous recipe at all recipes.co.uk  for Sugar Cookies

All the reviews said how easy and delicious these cookies were, and they were so right.  I love these cookies and believe I will make them over and over again.  What a great discovery, all this because my friend, Kerry, asked me what weight a cup was!  Thank you, Kerry!


Recipe with no notes or photos can be found at the end.

and many apologies to all the folks who have already viewed this....I did it in such a hurry to meet the deadline, I forgot to put the conversions!  I am adding them now with the reminder that these are my guestimates and I can only hope they are correct. They seem correct to me!

Sugar Cookies:

5 Ingredients!  All probably sitting in your cupboard
waiting for you to make these cookies!

Ingredients

Makes: 4 dozen

225g butter, softened  ( 1 cup)

200g sugar  (3/4 cup)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

340g self raising flour  (2 cups)

Method

Prep:15min  ›  Cook:10min  ›  Ready in:25min 

Long before step 1, I took my butter out and left it to sit for hours!  It was wonderfully soft 

and I think this is one reason these cookies tasted so good!  

1. Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas 5 / 375 F  (just found a great website for oven temp conventions!)
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased baking trays.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on tray two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I use a convection oven and have to go 20 degrees cooler.  I then never remember if I should bake the whole time or a bit shorter......So my first 2 dozen were a bit brown, but tasty, because I used the whole 10 minutes.  Then I had a look at the picture on the recipe and noticed these cookies are almost white.  So the timing for my oven is 8 minutes.  In the following picture, you can see the difference in colour, but both "types" taste wonderful, if I do say so myself!

I got 4 1/2 dozen!

"You cannot open a book without learning something."  Confucious

This is a direct copy from the website, why mess with perfection?

Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients

Makes: 4 dozen

225g butter, softened  (1 cup)

200g sugar  (3/4 cup)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

340g self raising flour  (2 cups)

Method

Prep:15min  ›  Cook:10min  ›  Ready in:25min 

1. Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas 5.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually mix in the flour. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased baking trays.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on tray two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.