fluffy valentine sugar cookies.

Back in college when I joined pinterest, I was so excited that I would have this little portal for recipes and projects, because I used to kind of do pinterest on my own with the bookmarks bar in my browser. I had folders for everything (boards) and would save various links (pins) to each folder (board) and go back to them when I felt like baking something or making something. You catch my drift.I remember this recipe was one of the first things I pinned, and in my tiny apartment kitchen I made a batch of these babies. About forty cookies were baked over the course of five hours. Some were sent overseas to R in his valentine's care package, some were saved for late night snacks in the apartment, and some were brought to my classes on valentine's day to distract everyone from the work we were supposed to get through. When I was thinking about something to make this year for valentine's day, I decided that even though I have a million pins that could come to life in my kitchen, these cookies made so many people happy that I just had to make them again.This recipe makes about forty cookies with a large cookie cutter (probably about sixty five small round cookies!) so I recommend halving the recipe if you aren't baking for a lot of people or a party.
// 6 C all purpose flour
// 2 C granulated sugar
// 1 C unsalted butter, at room temp.
// 1 tsp. baking soda
// 1 tsp. baking powder
// 1/2 tsp. salt
// 2 tsp. vanilla extract
// 3 large eggs
// 12 oz. sour creamThis recipe makes the type of cookies that you find in the front of the supermarket before every holiday with the really sickly thick frosting. There is sour cream in the dough, which keeps them super fluffy (so fluffy that my first batch of seven cookies are monstrously huge because the dough wasn't rolled out thin enough), and also pretty sticky because of that as well.
To make the dough:
1// mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
2// in a stand mixer (or in a bowl with a wooden spoon and your biceps), mix the butter and sugar together until combined.
3// add one egg to the mix at a time until combined, then the vanilla extract and sour cream.
4// add the dry ingredients little by little until all is combined and a sticky dough remains.
5// split the dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap to set in the fridge overnight, or for at least two hours.Once your dough is chilled (I gave it about three hours) set your oven to 400* and start rolling out the dough over flour on wax paper in sections a little thinner than a quarter inch (I used a wooden spoon handle as a rolling pin, which worked fine. I really need to get my own place with kitchen tools). I used a giant heart cookie cutter for valentine's day, but any shape works because the dough holds it's shape in the oven. Bake cookies for about six minutes, until the edges start browning a bit, and immediately set on a cooling rack. Frost and decorate once the cookies are completely cooled, which takes a while because they are fairly thick.These cookies are a hit. They're not super sweet themselves, so adding some frosting and sprinkles doesn't overdo it at all. They're also a really good type of cookie to have a decorating party with kids because they hold up very well when being frosted and don't get crumby like some cookies do. Check my instagram later this week to see how Max does decorating his cookies for his mom and dad's valentine's day present.