Awesome Sugar Cookies

These are drop sugar cookies, the kind that skip the chill-and-roll routine and head straight from bowl to oven. A teaspoon onto a greased sheet, ten minutes in the oven, and you have five dozen cookies on the cooling rack in under an hour.

The two fats are the texture trick. Margarine brings the structure and richness of a butter cookie, while a full cup of vegetable oil keeps the cookies soft and prevents them from drying out as they cool. The two sugars do similar dual work: granulated for crispness around the edges, powdered for a more tender, melt-in-your-mouth crumb.

Cream of tartar pulls double duty. It reacts with the baking soda to leaven, and it adds the same subtle tang you taste in a snickerdoodle. Without it, these would be sweet but flat in flavor.

Bake until just lightly golden around the edges. Going past that point dries them out quickly, since these carry less moisture than a traditional butter cookie.

Pro Tips

• Sift the dry ingredients to break up the cream of tartar and baking soda so they distribute evenly.
• Use a 1-teaspoon cookie scoop for consistent size and even baking.
• Watch the cookies more than the timer; ovens vary and even one extra minute crosses into too dry.
• Cool on the pan for two minutes before moving so they firm up.

Variations

• Roll the dough balls in cinnamon sugar before baking to push them into snickerdoodle territory.
• Add a teaspoon of almond extract along with the vanilla for a bakery-style note.
• Press a thumbprint into each baked cookie and fill with jam for filled sugar cookies.