1/2cupbutter or, 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup Butter Flavor or Regular Crisco OR vegetable oil
1/2cupsour cream
3/4cupgranulated sugar
1teaspoonvanilla (or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract)
2 1/4cupsall purpose flour
1/2teaspoonbaking powder
1/2teaspoonsalt
sugar
Frosting:
1/4cupbutter, room temperature
1tablespoonsour cream
2cupspowdered sugar
1teaspoonsvanilla
dash of salt
1drop red food coloring
1-2tablespoonsmilk**
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 convection or 350 regular bake.
Take butter out of refrigerator and microwave for about 15 seconds. Place butter, shortening and cold sour cream in a mixing bowl. Mix for about one minute. Add sugar and vanilla, mix until smooth. Add all dry ingredients at once. Mix just until flour disappears and the mixture comes together in a ball of dough, about 1-2 minutes on very low speed.
Spray the cookie scoop with a little cooking spray. Scoop the dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. I use either a 1 3/4 inch or a 2 inch scoop. A two inch scoop will produce a cookie similar in size to the Swig cookie. If you don't have a cookie scoop, use an ice cream scoop or roll the dough into a ball about the size of a golf ball. It is best to use a scoop and overfill it a bit to get the desired jagged edge.
Place about 1/4 cup sugar into a small bowl.
Spray the bottom of a flat glass with cooking spray. Flatten one cookie a bit then dip the glass in sugar Press the bottom of the glass against the cookie. Press the cookies so they are flattened a bit, twisting the glass as you press to produce a jagged edge. I bake 8 cookies per tray.Continue until all cookies are flattened.
Bake in oven for about 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly golden and cookies are slightly firm to the touch. Remove from oven, let cool. Place the cookies in the fridge and chill.
Prepare the frosting:
Beat together the butter, sour cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. When all ingredients are incorporated, add the drop of food coloring and milk if the frosting needs to be thinned.
Frost after the cookies are completely chilled.
Makes about 14 small or 8-10 large cookies. I almost always double this recipe.
Notes
*If you want the cookies to taste more like the Swig cookies make this adjustment to the dough: omit the vanilla and reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup. I prefer the cookies to be a bit sweeter, so I liked 3/4 cup of sugar in the dough.
I like the cookies made with about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of almond extract in the dough, along with the 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
**The Swig cookie is frosted with quite a thin layer of frosting. I prefer my frosting to be a bit thicker. If you want to frost the cookie with a thinner frosting, add about 3-4 tablespoons of milk to the frosting.
The bit of crunch on the edge of the Swig cookie could be from the baking method, or from cream of tarter substituted for the baking powder. Cream of tarter adds a bit of a crunch, but also a hint of tang, which I didn't detect in the Swig cookie. In one of my test batches, I tried 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter along with 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, and thought the cookie was too tangy, not at all like the Swig cookie. ** See update above recipe on 10/2013
This cookie stays quite well in the fridge for about a week if kept in an air tight container.
Disclaimer! I read some of the comments left by readers on another knockoff recipe. Some of the comments left were (to put it mildly) not very nice. What's up with that?
I posted this recipe because several people have asked me about the Swig recipe.