"magic" sugar cookies

I have a secret. This cookie recipe, this wonderful, glorious cookie recipe, produces the world's most magical sugar cookies. I have witnessed grown men groan with delight eating these cookies, foodies swoon at the sweet-salty combo, and children steal the cookie plate and hide it away so they can eat the cookies all by themselves without any adults stealing more.

The secret? In addition to being the most delicious cookies on the face of the planet, it's probably the easiest cookie recipe in the world. No fancy ingredients, unless you go for that sort of thing (I'm an organic and cage-free kind of girl myself). No fancy cooking technique. No fancy equipment that you buy for one recipe once, and then glare at for 5 years while it takes up now unusable kitchen counter space. And once you have brought these cookies to a party, you will only ever be asked to bring these cookies, ever again. Get ready, friends. These are not just any cookies. They are magic.

You know what else is magical? Being part of a cookie swap. Lindsay and Julie are the organizers of The Great Food Blogger Cookie swap, and I am delighted to have been part of the baking-mailing-receiving cookie crowd for my second year (check out last year's recipe, Almond Butter Cookies). This year, I sent these cookies to three wonderful people, Lindsay at ItzLinz, Brittany at A Healthy Slice of Life, and Laurie at Crunchy Gooey, and received sweet sweets from three wonderful bloggers:

cinnamon cookie brittle from Shari at TickledRed.com






the most addictive chocolate cookie peppermint sandwiches I've ever had from Cait at thepatrioticbaker.com

and salty-sweet chocolate pistachio cookies from Mallory at www.forkvsspoon.com.






Want to send cookies to your friends too? Try any of the above recipes, or the magic cookie recipe below!

Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar, preferably raw cane sugar, though regular white will work just fine
one palmful (about 1/8 of a cup) brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
generous 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 330 degrees, and grab two baking sheets.

2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. If you go weak in the knees for a saltier-sweet combination, feel free to sprinkle a smidge more salt in the mix.

3. Cream the butter and sugars together in a stand mixer. Don't be shy about beating the butter into submission: the creamier and fluffier the butter, the fluffier the cookie.

4. Add the eggs and vanilla, and stir it all up.

5. Fold in the dry ingredients, mixing until everything looks evenly distributed.

6. Roll the dough into small balls about the size of the quarter and stick them on a baking sheet - I usually get 30-36 cookies per sheet.

7. Stick the cookies in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is just cooked.

8. Pull them out of the oven, let cool for 3-4 minutes, then move the cookies to a rack to finishing cooling.

9. Eat. Eat. Eat more.

Pro tip: Hide the cookie jar. If you don't, your friends/family/happy goblins might eat them while your back is turned!