By Rita of sammysgrammy
The FRANCES cookie, is so called because of my Mom's next door neighbor, Frances, who made these cookies, in the 60's, for every imaginable occasion. In the spring, they were bunny and chick cookies, in February, they were heart cookies, then throughout the year: leaves. pumpkins, stars, angels, etc. The FRANCES cookie is scrumptious and so easy to make.
No rolling pins, no dough chilling. Just make the dough and pat it out with your hand, cut it with a cutter.........and "viola!", a FRANCES cookie.
INGREDIENTS: 2 sticks of room temperature margarine, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 room temperature egg plus 2 yolks, 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. of baking powder, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla.
METHOD: cream together the margarine and sugar with an electric beater. Add vanilla, then set aside. In another bowl, put all the dry ingredients. Whisk them together to incorporate them well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds. When the dough becomes too heavy for your mixer, mix by hand with a spoon then use your hands to gather all the dough into a ball. Flour your counter well. Put the ball of dough on the counter and knead a couple minutes until you have a smooth ball. With a pastry scrapper, cut the dough into eighths. Take one eighth and pat it into a rough circle on the floured counter, flipping it a couple times so that all the dough has "bench flour" on it, preventing it from sticking. Cut out cookies. Use the scraper (see pic) to remove all the excess dough from between the cookies. Save those scraps. Remove the cookies with the scraper, to the lined cookie sheet. Bake until the edges begin to brown. Remove to a wax paper or parchment covered large flat surface (I use my kitchen table) to cool.
Add the scraps to another eighth and begin process again until you have used up all the dough.
bake @ 375 degrees approx. 9 minutes on lined cookie sheets. Yield approx. 50 cookies
Optional glaze. (I always do this step but Frances didn't)
GLAZE: 1 cup of powdered sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of hot water. Using a whisk, beat until you get a silky consistency like chocolate syrup. If glaze is too thick, add more water in very small increments. If it's too thin and runny, add more sugar. I "paint" this glaze onto the cookies with a pastry brush. If you want to put sprinkles on, do it while the glaze is wet on the cookie. Let the cookies dry for several hours or overnight before storing them in a container.
Enjoy.......
Rita
By Rita of sammysgrammy
The FRANCES cookie, is so called because of my Mom's next door neighbor, Frances, who made these cookies, in the 60's, for every imaginable occasion. In the spring, they were bunny and chick cookies, in February, they were heart cookies, then throughout the year: leaves. pumpkins, stars, angels, etc. The FRANCES cookie is scrumptious and so easy to make.
No rolling pins, no dough chilling. Just make the dough and pat it out with your hand, cut it with a cutter.........and "viola!", a FRANCES cookie.
INGREDIENTS: 2 sticks of room temperature margarine, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 room temperature egg plus 2 yolks, 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. of baking powder, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla.
METHOD: cream together the margarine and sugar with an electric beater. Add vanilla, then set aside. In another bowl, put all the dry ingredients. Whisk them together to incorporate them well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds. When the dough becomes too heavy for your mixer, mix by hand with a spoon then use your hands to gather all the dough into a ball. Flour your counter well. Put the ball of dough on the counter and knead a couple minutes until you have a smooth ball. With a pastry scrapper, cut the dough into eighths. Take one eighth and pat it into a rough circle on the floured counter, flipping it a couple times so that all the dough has "bench flour" on it, preventing it from sticking. Cut out cookies. Use the scraper (see pic) to remove all the excess dough from between the cookies. Save those scraps. Remove the cookies with the scraper, to the lined cookie sheet. Bake until the edges begin to brown. Remove to a wax paper or parchment covered large flat surface (I use my kitchen table) to cool.
Add the scraps to another eighth and begin process again until you have used up all the dough.
bake @ 375 degrees approx. 9 minutes on lined cookie sheets. Yield approx. 50 cookies
Optional glaze. (I always do this step but Frances didn't)
GLAZE: 1 cup of powdered sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of hot water. Using a whisk, beat until you get a silky consistency like chocolate syrup. If glaze is too thick, add more water in very small increments. If it's too thin and runny, add more sugar. I "paint" this glaze onto the cookies with a pastry brush. If you want to put sprinkles on, do it while the glaze is wet on the cookie. Let the cookies dry for several hours or overnight before storing them in a container.
Enjoy.......
Rita
By Rita of sammysgrammy
10:12 AM |
Category:
cookies,
cut out cookie,
dough,
holiday,
recipe of the month,
shaped
|
10
comments
Comments (10)
Rita, thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It looks much easier than the one I have been using! The photos are great and I'm really looking forward to more of your recipes!
Rita, thank you for sharing the recipe! Those cookies look yummy! :)
I love cut out cookies and I really love this one because there's no rolling pin involved. I have bookmarked this under recipes and will try it for Valentine's and make hearts.
Thanks so much for sharing this!
Wow! These look amazing! I absolutely LOVE sugar cookies, and the only thing that could possibly make them any better is multicolored sprinkles!
Those look yummy - and easy =)
Mmm Yummy! These look fabulous and so easy. Thanks for posting!
WHat a simple recipe adn the use of different shaped cookie cutters makes it a breeze! Thank you!
Yum! I love cookies. Any kind.
My favorite dessert! Thank you for sharing.
Loving the CAST blog. Just found it today!
:o) button
Thanks for this fun recipe Rita! I know my kids will just love trying it out.
YUMMMM I am so excited to try these cookies! Thank you SammysGrammy for sharing the recipe - it's even sweeter because I will think of you, and your neighbor Frances who used to make these for every occasion!