Hi Everyone!

Does anyone have the recipe for Pennys Sugar Cookies? My computer crashed and now I lost the recipe.

Thanks,

Jeanene

Jeanene -

You so sound like me. I love my computer, but if I lose it, I lose it all!

I have never used this recipe, I usually use NFSC. But, I got the link from another forum not too long ago. I swore I would try it when I have some time for experiementing. That time has yet to arrive!

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2000-12-01/recipe.php

What do you like about this recipe? Have you always used this one, or others?

HTH -
Mandi

I think that I will try them for Thanksgiving baskets for the teachers. The teachers always love my cookies, and they won't have to be perfect.

Thanks for the information, I will let you know how all goes in a few weeks.

Mandi

This recipe calls for "unbleached four". What is that? Cake flour? Please advise. Thanx

What a great idea! To make 'teacher baskets'!! I always stress over what to get the teachers and this should be an obvious one! thanks for the idea. I also have piles of recipes to try and will add this one to it! (on top lol)
THanks!!

I decided that I would do the teacher basket thing this year. I have done one for each teacher for the beginning of the year and Halloween, thus far. They have been a HUGE hit and gotten me LOTS of orders in the meantime. Some of the teachers have shared their cookies and other teachers see me as I deliver, it has been great marketing.

I spend more time than I normally would on a gift, but it is a ton cheaper than buying 4 different gifts all of the time. Besides, who really knows what the teacher really wants!!! I always ended up getting gift cards to speciality bath product shops and spas. BUT THAT ADDS UP QUICK! I love the idea of this and plan on doing it many more times in the future. I have made my children's teachers the envy of the other teachers! They all know that their mommy is going to feed that sweet tooth!

its the exact same thing as regular all purpous flour it just hasn't gone through the bleaching process. its usually right by the AP flour and they can be used interchangeably.

Use all-purpose flour in the recipe. It will state on the flour packaging whether it is bleached or unbleached and is just how the wheat has been processed into flour.

Happy Baking!!

Bleaching is a process that is used on the flour.. you can get unbleached AP flour or bleached AP flour.. the same goes for cake flour and bread flour.. though they can be harder to find (especially unbleached cake flour) unless you mail order them.

For Penny's recipe it calls for unbleached AP flour. You can find this in your grocery store. I use King Arthur brand, but you can find others.

Bleaching makes the product white and alters the gluten molecules.. your dough will be a bit more elastic using bleached vs unbleached. There is discussion over the saftey of using bleached flour.. they use Benzoyl Peroxide and Chlorine Dioxide and a Chloride gas as well as adding Potassium Bromate (a suspected carcinogen) and Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). Europe, Japan and Canada don't allow the use of Potassium Bromate in food products and a few states, namely California, in the US require that it is put on the label. Some people say that the process leave behind only trace amount of any of these chemicals, while others say it is potentially harmful. Who knows.. they change their mind as to what is safe and what isn't daily it seems.

I like unbleached flour.. especially in cake and cookie making since you don't want it to be overly glutenous.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about the subject, but that's what I am good for.

I use and LOVE Penny's Recipe.. IMHO you can't beat it.

I am not the expert but I have just always used all-purpose flour even whe it says unbleached. I looked at my Bread Flour bag and it says unbleached but I use it only for bread, but my all-purpose says bleached. OK I looked further and if it says bleached it is made whiter by chemical stuff! So its really just whiter flour.

It is and it isn't.. It's not that simple. The bleaching process changes the molecular structure of the gluten in the wheat making it chemically different than unbleached flour. You will yeild simillar results using either.. but bleached flour yields a slightly denser product.

You can actually smell the difference (and taste it too IMHO) between something made with bleached vs unbleached flour. Not that it's entirely unpleasant, but it's something that I notice. I often use bleached cake flour because it's all that they sell in the stores around here.. and I can smell it immediately when you are mixing it up.

jkalman,
that's great to know. I'll pay more attention next time I buy flour. I didn't realize baking wise it made a difference in the end product.

yes, it does seem like the experts change their minds daily as to what is good for you today will kill you tomorrow...

It's not a HUGE difference, but it's there. I really feel that for baked goods (unless you are talking about breads) going with unbleached is the better option.. the less gluten development the better when it comes to cakes and cookies.