Soft Sugar Cookies

This recipe for sugar cookies has been running with the Gilbert women of Ontario, Canada for more than 100 years. No one knows where the recipe started, but it's been that way as long as any can recall with no real change.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup (230 g) shortening or butter
- Vanilla, to taste
- 1 cup (200 g) white granulated sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 tsp (10 g) baking powder
- 2–3 cups (250–375 g) flour
Steps
- Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl to break yolks. Mix in shortening. If using butter, soften it slightly by heating. Mixture should be loose.
- Mix in sugar. Add salt.
- Add baking powder. Add flour slowly until dough can be shaped without sticking much to hands. Use less or a little more flour as needed.
- Shape into balls. Place on a greased or parchment-lined pan.
- Bake in oven heated to 175°C (350°F) for 15–20 minutes.
Notes from the original
- Feel free to switch out half the sugar with another sweet item, like honey.
- Using three tablespoons of cocoa powder one can get a slight chocolate flavour to the cookie, without being overtly chocolatey.
- Try adding chocolate chips to the dough.
- Approximately 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract works well for this recipe.
- Adding some cinnamon and nutmeg gives a good flavor.
- When heating up the butter, make sure that it's only barely solid when it's mixed into the eggs.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Soft Sugar Cookies” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-10-04, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Grannie Gilbert's Sugar Cookies.jpg by AceDragonfly, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.






