Soft Sugar Cookies

I have never really been that into the hallmark holiday that is Valentines Day - but I am not really against it either. As kids, our parents would always surprise us with heart-shaped boxes of candy, helium balloons and other pink and red goodies (which I loved). In high school, my friends and I would always buy each other those pink carnation-grams (was ours the only school that did this?) and I, for some reason, have almost always made heart-shaped pink-frosted sugar cookies.

My most memorable valentines day was probably my freshman year of college in Hawaii. My boyfriend (now husband) had me convinced that he hated big boats (I have no idea why I believed him - he can be very convincing). Then on Valentines day, he drove me all the way to the harbor in Waikiki (a 40 minute drive, half of which he made me stay blindfolded) and surprised me with a sunset dinner cruise and a very very very funny card that he made (the way into my heart is to make me laugh - what I can say). It was an awesome treat for two very very broke college students - especially since we had spent our "carefree" first few months away from home fighting heart issues of a more life threatening kind. Really though, most of my Valentines days have been spent eating these sugar cookies, watching funny movies with friends or sisters or my husband, and just enjoying the many types of love in my life (and their healthy hearts).

These cookies have always been the recipe I have made - well, almost. I have always used sour cream before (schmand in Germany, not saure sahne). This year, I happened to have a bunch of Greek-style yogurt (well actually Turkish in this case, but basically same thing) and wanted to see if that would work as well. It worked marvelously - these cookies are super soft and chewy and not overly sweet, making them the perfect canvas for sweet butter cream frosting. I didn't include a recipe for the frosting, mostly because I don't really have one. I start with 250g of butter whipped up soft and fluffy and add about that same amount of sifted powdered sugar. I add a dash of vanilla, couple squeezes of lemon juice, and then add more sugar as needed.

Soft Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
dash nutmeg (I do like 1 scrape across the microplane)
1/2 cup thick Greek style yogurt (or sour cream if you wish) (schmand in Germany)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (Germany type 550)

Cream butter and sugar until soft and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, nutmeg and Yogurt.

Sift the flour then stir in the salt and soda. Combine the wet and dry ingredients with a large rubber spatula until mostly combined, then just use your hands to bring everything into a nice dough.

Roll out the dough over a well-floured surface (sprinkle some flour on top of the dough as well so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin). Roll to about 1/4 -inch thick (make sure its all pretty even so the cookies cook evenly).

Cut the dough with cookie cutters (or just a glass if you don't have any shaped cutters). Bake at 225 C (425 F) until the edges are just barely starting to brown (the more you let them brown, the more crunch they will have around the edges if that is your thing). I don't give time estimates because it is always so different depending on how hot your oven gets and how big your cookies are - they cook fairly fast though so i just keep an eye on them while I cut out the rest of my cookies.

Let cool completely before frosting (I usually cook one day and frost the next, storing them in an airtight container overnight).