Alton Brown's Sugar Cookies

Everyone has heroes. People they look up to. Mimic themselves after. Try to emulate. When I'm in the kitchen, my heroes are who you'd guess. My mom, my sister...and of course Alton Brown.

Growing up, my Mom always made cooking dinner look easy. It wasn't always fancy, but it was nutritious, balanced and on the table piping hot by Seven. Now that I breadwin, I have a true appreciation for what she did and how hard it was. We had for dinner every night what most people had for dinner only on weekends when time permitted. She taught me to always plan ahead, to keep a well stocked pantry, and roll with the punches when you screw up.

I think my sister had a similar revelation shortly after college when she moved to Kentucky. Being two thousand miles away from a home cooked meal in the cultural wasteland that is Kentucky, she had no choice but to do it herself. And like anything that my sister does, she did it better than anyone else around her. Her style differed vastly from my mothers. It was more daring and more experimental. Where my mother specialized in comfort food, my sister explored flavors and recipes. She was not being dissuaded for an instant by a recipe that took more than a day to make. She taught me how to blend flavors, to complement consistencies and to think big.

And then there's Alton Brown. I think I've watched his entire Good Eats series seventeen times. What I loved about those shows he that he explains how things work. He provides a ground level understanding of Kitchen basics in terms of physics, chemistry, and math. You wouldn't think that that level of understanding is essential, but it helped turn my light bulb on.

I owe a lot to my heroes. Most notably, my growing Buddha belly and addiction to combined sweet AND savory flavors. By mostly, in learning from them, I was able to discover my own style of cooking. I understand the concept of how to prepare food. I understand how flavors work together. And I have the courage to try to make it happen, regardless of the possible outcome.

The lone exception is when baking. You can't screw around with chemical reactions and expect to get perfect sugar cookies. And that's the other reason I heart Alton Brown.

Inspiration: Holiday Open House Cookie Backing
Time: 20 minutes prep, 9 minutes bake time
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Stand Mixer
Servings: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Recipe found on http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe/index.html