A Sugar Cookie and a Dove

Two things came together in this cookie: a wonderful sugar cookie recipe and a rose geranium plant that had gotten wildly out of control.

The sugar cookie recipe itself is a classic that pops up in community cookbooks–the cookie is made with oil and butter, and melts away and crunches in your mouth with an explosion of butteriness. Can’t ask for more from a cookie!

Then I thought of decorating the cookie with leaves from the wildly out of control geranium, which really likes its southern exposure. So I picked some of the smallest leaves a few days ago, and pressed them in an old book. I used these to decorate each cookie.

I also tried a bad idea, and pressed a gummy cherry candy on the cookie before baking. See below for results! Oh, well.

But the cookies with the leaves turned out beautifully. By the way, I peeled the leaf off my cookie before nibbling–it left no flavor. (Though I think if these were stored in a cookie jar, the flavor might develop in a day or two.)

Here is the recipe.

Sugar Cookies

Out-of-control rose geranium plant.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, vegetable oil and sugars. Then beat in eggs until well blended. Then add the flour mixture. I used an electric mixer for this, because it’s a fairly large amount of dough to mix by hand.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten the dough a bit with a pancake turner, and press on a leaf, if desired. The cookies will double in size as they bake. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until bottoms are golden. You can sprinkle with powdered sugar after they have cooled, if you like.

Baking notes: Various recipes for this cookie have different baking temps and times, but what I’ve given here (350 degrees for 12 minutes) works well. I used a mild vegetable oil that is a combination of sunflower and canola.

A Mourning Dove

Mourning doves are so common that we almost don’t notice them. But I love their soft mournful cry, and was glad to take this elegant bird’s picture.

Keep the faith. Fran