Brown Sugar Cookie

This Brown Sugar Cookie recipe is a great all around chewy sugar cookie. It's a good recipe to keep on hand.

There will be those days when you have little bits of stuff that need to get used up, and you can use them here.

The cookies are not too sweet, and stay chewy even after a couple of days. You can always add a bunch of raisins or coconut to the dough, and they roll out easily to cut into favorite shapes.

Decorate stars and animal shapes with bits of slivered almonds and leftover sprinkles. The good news is that your cookies will be wildly original - the bad news is you will never make them the same way again!

Brown Sugar Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

With an electric mixer, cream the softened butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and beat it in, then add the vanilla extract and whipping cream.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients, slowly, to the creamed butter and sugar. Beat until the ingredients are well blended.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out shapes with your favorite cutters and place them on ungreased baking sheets about 1 ½ inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges begin to take on a darker color. Cool on wire racks.

Food For Thought - Add a little richness by adding 2 tablespoons of instant coffee - it gives the cookies just a little depth. Substitute almond extract for the vanilla to enhance the coffee flavor.

Good To Know - This recipe doesn't make a huge batch of cookies, so you might want to double the recipe. If it looks like you have too much, refrigerate half of the dough, tightly wrapped in plastic.

You Might Need:

• Kitchen Supply Aluminum Half Size Sheet Pan 18-inch by 13-inch

• Calphalon 12-by-17-Inch Rectangular Nonstick Cooling Rack

• Silpat 11-5/8-by-16-1/2-Inch Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat

• Oxo Good Grips Cookie Scoop