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Dessert

Sugar Cookies II

A simple sugar cookie dough made with butter, sugars, eggs, oil, vanilla, lemon peel, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and optional colored sugar.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sugar Cookies II

Oven32°
Time8–10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Cream butter and sugars; beat in eggs one at a time until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat in oil, vanilla, and lemon peel.

  3. Combine dry ingredients and gradually add to the sugar mixture, beating until well blended.

  4. Wrap the dough in wax paper and chill several hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Preheat oven to 32° and grease two cookie sheets.

  2. Divide the dough into thirds, keeping one third out and refrigerating the rest until needed.

  3. Form a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball.

  4. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet.

  5. Flatten each ball to a 2" diameter with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

  6. Sprinkle with plain or colored sugar and bake 8–10 minutes until lightly browned.

  7. Let the cookies stand on the sheet for 2–3 minutes before removing.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

878Calories
20 gProtein
37 gFat
113 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saladnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they are beaten in.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with baking soda to lift the dough and add tenderness.
Salad oil
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the cookies tender.

The step that matters

Chill the dough before shaping. Chilling firms the fat so the dough holds its shape and spreads less in the oven, giving thicker, more even cookies.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, cream):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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