Irene's Butter Cookies

Irene was our back fence neighbor when we were growing up. The only things I really knew about Irene were that she made sugar cookies to give out to trick-or-treaters, she had gray hair and her kids were smart. They were the kind of kids that were toilet trained by 9 months- no joke.

Another thing about Irene was that she saved my life. I was in the backyard sitting in the tree swing and spinning around. I wasn't paying attention and my hair got stuck in the rope of the swing. So I screamed and screamed and my mother didn't hear me. But Irene did. She hurdled over the fence like an Olympic track star and rescued me. Wait a minute, I think that was one of my sisters and not me. I don't know. Either way, she saved one of our lives.


I mostly made these because of the terrible butter cookies everyone gets at Christmas. You know the ones. They are called butter cookies, but they are so obviously made with sawdust. The only thing they are good for are unknowing toddlers and maybe making a pie crust with. Irene's butter cookies are scads better than Christmas sawdust cookies. I had to make these to prove to my family that the crap cookies we got were gross. These are buttery and melt in your mouth. They taste best when they come right out of the oven.



1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt

Set the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, powdered sugar and oil. Beat until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and being sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Stir in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cream and tartar and salt. Whisk to combine. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined, but being sure not to over-mix.

Scoop balls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until sides are barely browned. Immediately remove cookies from the cookie sheet and set on a cooling rack.

Rookie's Notes: If you want the cookies to glisten a little, roll the dough balls in some sugar before baking.