Banning Procrustean Evangelists

It is a bit like waving a red flag in front of a bull and not expecting it to charge I suppose. I'm talking about this entry and this reply to kevin_standlee. It was what finally convinced me to just delete the rest of his comments and ban him. "Why do you hate rationalism?" Oh pleeezzee. From previous interactions I didn't exactly expect a high level of discourse (or readability, the rest of his comments tended to the long and difficult to parse), but that's the same level of debate as the anti-abortion idiots saying, "How can you say you love your children when you want to murder them?"

The thing that I really don't understand about a lot of evangelistic types is that they have not patience or listening skills. They just expect everyone to automatically see as they do or accept that their evidence is more valid than anyone else's.

'Old Fashioned' Sugar Cookies

Mix in a bowl with a whisk or sift:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt (reduce or leave out if you are using salted butter)

Ingredients:
½ cup butter (or shortening if you don't care about taste)
1 cup sugar
1 egg, unbeaten
1 teaspoon vanilla or ½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup thick sour cream

Beat the sugar and butter until well creamed. At least 2 minutes on setting '8' on a Kitchen Maid stand mixer. Or until you raise a blister if you don't have a stand mixer. Add the egg and mix again on high. Add the sour cream and your preferred spice. Mix on high one last time. Now start adding the flour mixture a bit at a time while mixing very slowly. Mix only long enough to combine all ingredients. This is ¼ cup of flour short to allow for variations in flour density so you don't have to sift it before measuring. Simply add a bit more if the dough doesn't seem stiff enough or is too sticky. It should be a hair or two softer than pie crust.

Before rolling out your dough start heating your oven to 190°C or 375°F.

Roll out to a thickness of about ¼ of an inch or ½ cm. Thicker will produce a softer cookie while thinner will produce a more crisp one. Cut and sprinkle with granulated sugar, plain white sugar is elegant and colored sugar is fun. I find that complex shapes are difficult to work with unless I slip a thin spatula of some kind under the cookie and leave the cutter around it while moving it. Cutting out around a solid shape with a knife works better than cutting freehand, though in both cases expect a slightly less crisp edge.

1 part cocoa powder to 2 parts granulated sugar is a very tasty dusting to put on a cookie, though I'm still experimenting with this. It looks very nice on my Ibex cookies.

Bake for 10 minutes and look carefully. They might go as long as 12 minutes when the oven is opened frequently. Don't wait until brown coloration starts up the sides, they'll be overdone on the bottom.

Pictures later. These are just how I like my cookies. Slightly cake like when fresh, a bit crisp on the outside, keep well, and not too sweet. Perfect with tea or a glass of milk.