Nine Dozen Little Cookies

Remember how I said I never follow a recipe? This is sometimes a good thing. It's always edible, mind you, sometimes the results are just more wonderful than at other times.

Such is the case with my Vanilla Refrigerator Cookies recipe. Let's start with the basic recipe:


Vanilla Refrigerator Cookies

3 cup flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup melted butter, margarine, or shortening
2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)
2-3 eggs (depending on size of the egg)
2 tablespoons real vanilla extract

Cream together margarine and sugar, add eggs and extract, stir in dry ingredients, then roll in wax paper. Store in fridge (can also freeze for up to 1 month). At your convenience cut slices ¼” thick bake on greased sheet 375 for 8-10 min. Let cool and serve.

But I didn't leave it there. Everything is the same except on the line where it reads "2 tablespoons real vanilla extract" instead I used 1 tablespoon Flavorganics pure peppermint extract and 1 table spoon vanilla extract. These are shown in the photo. That dough never made it to the fridge, I rolled it in 1 inch balls and baked for 5 minutes at 375 degrees -- it made nine dozen, perfect for a church potluck.

Here are some of the other things I've tried (the more successful ones anyway).

Refrigerator Cookie Variations

1. 2 tablespoons McCormick's Butter and Nut Vanilla and a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans.
2. 2 tablespoons Wintergreen extract, before wrapping in waxed paper roll in red sugar, when baking add 3 red hots (or teaberries) as decoration on the top of each cookie.
3. 2 drops LorAnne Gourmet Tangerine Oil, add 1 cup diced candied orange peel.
4. 6 tablespoons cocoa powder, and about a cup of mini chocolate chips.
5. 2 tablespoons lemon extract, couple drops of yellow food coloring, when you slice them up to bake save some of the dough and shape it into rays around each circular cookie to make sunny sunshine cookies.
6. 2 tablespoons strong peppermint extract, and add crushed candy canes. Take your broken peppermint candy canes, crush them up into small chunks using your food processor or like I do, with the rolling pin and ziplock bag method.

The possibilities are endless. And what's not to love about an honest-to-goodness "from scratch" homemade cookie that's as convenient as those tube'o'cookies you can get at the store?