The better (because it's homemade) Lofthouse cookie

The One and I both share a sad affinity for those lofty, cakey, heavily frosted cookies that you find in a lot of grocery stores (typically Fred Meyer/Kroger/Tom Thumb--all the same company, of course) known as "Lofthouse" cookies. A few months ago, I began my search for a recipe for these sweetened pieces of heaven, since my addiction at $5 a carton (with only ten cookies) became more expensive than my annual purchase of Thin Mints from green and brown-clad little girls who bat their eyes and confidently tell (not ask) me that I need to buy some Girl Scout cookies.*

At any rate, I ended up at RecipeZaar.com (*edit: now Food.com), and found what seemed to be a promising copycat recipe. One problem: I thought I had all the ingredients until I looked in my flour canister and realized I only had about half what the recipe called for. Since it was too late to halve the recipe, I substituted white All-Purpose flour with wheat flour. They turned out okay, and while I found that they tasted better a day after you make them, the wheat wasn't doing it for Kyle or me, and I used store-bought frosting, which just wasn't the same either.

Yesterday I made them again, with a few tweaks. Plus I found a fail-safe frosting recipe (which most bakers probably know off the tops of their heads anyway), which I made a few minor changes to as well. The resulting cookies are in short, amazing. Here are my altered recipes, and I hope that everyone tries these cookies and reports back to me. Go!

The Better Lofthouse Cookie

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup butter
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 3 eggs
4. 1 tsp vanilla extract
5. 1 tsp almond extract
6. 1 tsp baking powder
7. 1 1/2 cups sour cream
   
8. 5-6 cups flour (until desired consistency for rolling)

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Beat in eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
3. Combine the baking powder and 5 cups of flour separate bowl than your mixing bowl.
   
4. Mix in dry ingredients slowly.
5. Cover and refrigerate 6-8 hours (or overnight).
6. Preheat oven to 400'.
7. Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour.
8. Cut out shapes and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.
9. Cool on wire rack.
10. Frost and decorate as desired.

And don't forget the frosting...



Lofthouse Cookie Frosting

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups confectioner's sugar
2. 1/2 cup plus 1 T butter
3. 5 tablespoons milk
4. 1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla, whichever you prefer)
5. food coloring and/or sprinkles (if desired)

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth.
2. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes.
3. Color with food coloring if desired.
4. Frost cookies (don't skimp on the frosting--Lofthouse cookies' creators are heavy-handed with the frosting).
5. Add sprinkles if desired.

Watch out! These cookies are addicting!















*Girl Scout cookies are really quite the best example of inflation. I remember when I was a Girl Scout and cookies were $2.50 per box. When did they rocket up to $5???