Ice Cream Cookies (Mom’s Childhood Recipe)

Instructions

Preheat the Oven:

Start by preheating your oven to 350°F (175°C). This temperature ensures the cookies bake evenly, resulting in perfectly soft edges and a slight golden color. While the oven is heating up, prepare your baking sheets. You don’t need to grease them, as the dough will have enough fat from the butter to prevent sticking.

Cream the Butter and Sugar:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and white sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. You can use a hand mixer or beat the ingredients by hand with a wooden spoon. The goal is to incorporate air into the butter and sugar, which will help give the cookies their soft, tender texture. This step should only take a couple of minutes with an electric mixer.

Mix in the Wet Ingredients:

Beat in the egg, followed by the vanilla extract and milk. The milk is a key ingredient that gives these cookies their soft texture—something my mom fondly remembered from her childhood! Be sure to mix everything together until the dough is smooth and the wet ingredients are fully incorporated.

Add the Flour:

Now, add the flour to the mixture. Stir it in just until the flour is fully incorporated into the dough. Be careful not to overmix the dough at this stage, as doing so can lead to tougher cookies. Once the flour is mixed in, the dough should be soft and slightly sticky, ready for the next step.

Form the Cookies: