Sugar Cookies: All They're Cracked Up To Be

Remember the other day when I wrote about baking cookies for the people on my husband's team?

I told you about the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies but I thought the Cracked Sugar Cookies really deserved their own post.

Often when I make sugar cookies I make these Thick Cut Outs because they're soft, sturdy, and easy to decorate too.  I wanted to do something different for my husband to take to work, though- and lets be honest, I was just itching to make something I hadn't made before.  :-) Pretty much all of my kitchen time lately has been on popcorn and I wanted to make something fun.

I settled on these Cracked Sugar Cookies.  I mixed up the dough, tasted it (salmonella risk be darned...), and decided that it needed almond extract.  Then I decided to make them into much bigger cookies than the recipe had called for.

Just as I was getting ready to preheat the oven I checked the recipe to see at what temperature I needed to set the oven- and noticed that I'd made these cookies before.  I'd reviewed them before.  I'd decided they needed to have almond flavoring and be bigger before.  Four years ago when I made them the first time and promptly forgot about them.

How weird. 

Anyway, these cookies really are delicious (and I highly recommend my changes!).  Enjoy!

Cracked Sugar Cookies

Modified from Allrecipes.com

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 cup butter

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Cream together sugar and butter. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla, and almond.

2. Add flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Stir.  Chill dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets.  Form dough into 1/4 C pucks and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.  Bake 12-15 minutes, or until tops are cracked and just turning color.