Yes my "No Fail Sugar Cookies" Failed I followed the recipe to a tee or at least I thought I did I must of done something wrong. The dough is SOOOO CRUMBLY!!!!! I can't even roll it into a lil ball, its just cracks and crumbles. What did I do wrong????

that happend to me once too, and i followed the recipe exactly. after researching to see what happend, i found that you can over mix your dough, which will cause it to become dry and crumble.

Personally, I don't care for the NFSC. It's the texture. It is too crumbly and I don't over-work anything except myself...Ha! I prefer Penney McConnell's recipe.

I don't care for the NFSC at all. I don't have any trouble with crumbling. I just find the taste to be quite blah. Luckily there are any number of other, more tasty recipes for cut out cookies around. I would suggest that you start testing some new recipes and find one to your liking.
Heather

I had been having trouble with my dough being too crumbly, so I used the same one-cup measuring cup to fill a measuring bowl to the needed cups, and oh, my, they didn't measure the same. So I did a new batch using the bowl, and wah-la, wonderful, creamy dough, and much softer cookies! Me with my backwards cookie cutters and wanky measuring cups !

I think what happened to you happened to me once and it was because I miscounted the # of cups of flour I put in.

I do remember reading a post about weighing your ingredients instead of measurements to always get the same consistency.

I have to say, I like the NFSC recipe. It's an easy recipe to remember and I always have all the ingredients on hand. everyone that has tasted it really likes it.

I use jumbo eggs and they are just right. Are you creaming the butter and sugar til light and fluffy? That may help too. Try jumbo eggs!!!!!

When you measure your flour, do you scoop it out of the container using your measuring cup or fill the cup and tap it down before leveling? If so, you will have quite a bit more flour than you should, resulting in a crumbly, dry dough. For most recipes (except some oddball ones that actually say to scoop/tap down), you should lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level off.

Or, get a good scale and weigh. It's so much faster and more accurate. I'd never go back to measuring flour for NFSC!

OK, so weighing the flour, how much do you use?

I really should pull out a scale. I'm just scooping flour with my measuring cup, leveling it off. Thanks for the tips

I have never cared for the NFSC recipe either. There's something missing in it.. I use Penny's recipe too and the addition of the heavy cream makes a huge difference IMHO. I have made them side by side using the same exact flavoring amounts and the NFSC's still were lacking. Everyone who tried them side by side agreed.

You have to try the "money maker" sc recipe. It's awesome!

Panchewjersey - What is the "money maker" sc recipe and where do we find it? It sounds like a hit!

NFSC is all I ever use and I love it.

I'm also a "Until it looks right cook", so if my dough is crumbly, i.e. "dry", then I add more fat or liquid to it. If it's too wet, then I add more flour. I view a recipe as a "suggested guideline" but different flours, different butters/margarines, and even different cooks can affect a recipe differently.

Dont' be afraid to deviate. Usually, when I follow a recipe "to the T", it never comes out right anyway ... or at least it never comes out the way *I* like it!

I did a search for Penny's recipe, and here is what was posted:

Butter Cookie Dough

1 cup salted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons whipping cream
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups unbleached flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a mixer combine butter and sugar. Add egg, cream, vanilla, and almond extract all at once and thoroughly blend. In a separate bowl stir together flour and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and blend. Roll out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch and cut with a cookie cutter. Bake on a greased cookie sheet 8 to 12 minutes and cool on a rack. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. (Dough does not need to be chilled before using.)

Basic Glaze

1 tablespoon light corn syrup, such as Karo
1/4 teaspoon almond, orange, or lemon extract
3 cups powdered sugar

Using a mixer, dissolve syrup and extract in 1/4 cup warm water. Add sugar and beat on low speed until smooth.