Sugar cookies can be a controversial dessert depending on who you ask King Arthur for (too basic! too delicate! too crumbly!). But when longtime recipe tester Molly Marzalek-Kelly put the iconic cookie together herself, the result was a delicious, warm spiced cookie that chews with a soft chew in every bite.
Imagine a slice of citrusy, moist olive oil cake—the kind of utterly delicious yet elegant cake you'll be happy to eat with your morning coffee or enjoy after dinner for a slightly sweet note. Now, imagine his cookie core and meet ours Olive oil-orange sugar cookies.
Rick Holbrook
The first step in transforming the simple sugary dessert was to give it a fresh new taste. Once Molly landed on orange peel to give it a citrus spin, olive oil was a natural pairing—and it happens to add some springiness to the cookie's inner texture, too. A quartet of spices round it all out – turmeric and cardamom (a happy accident that they're also part of the same botanical family) plus nutmeg and cloves for a nod to classic winter spices. Once you've dug in more flavors, spices, and sugar, you can bake with confidence knowing you'll be rewarded with a sugar cookie that's sure to steal the show.
It's a holiday dessert FAR by cookie cutter, and deservedly so New classics the status. And that's why it's our Bake of the Week.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook.
