(Almost) Swig Sugar Cookies and one long story behind them...

If you live in St George, Utah, or have visited St. George over the past few months you've heard about the buzz surrounding SWIG. It's a little cookie shack (two locations) rumored to be hauling in thousands of dollars each day. They sell cookies, ice cream, donuts, shaved ice and get this- "Dirty Diet Coke".  The Mormons in St. George are a pretty tame bunch ( I know this, bc they're my peeps). Slap the name "dirty" on a soda and you have a small stampede outside your place of business. This is about as wild as it gets if you're a Mormon :) The "dirty" in the soda, btw is a free add-in flavoring such as coconut, cherry, lime, etc.

Here's a pic of a famous St. George landmark, in case you haven't ever been there. It's a beautiful town located about 2 hours north of Las Vegas.

St George Temple

The skinny :

The big deal at Swig is the sugar cookie (which is actually baked by the folks at Dutchman's Market/Cravings Bakery in Santa Clara). Dutchman's has a FB page, if you scroll down their page, they show a pic of the cookies sold in their store, along with what they call "muddy" sodas. Maybe they call it a muddy soda after mud filled their shop? Dutchman's went under (literally) last year when there was a devastating flood in Santa Clara. They recently re-opened and are selling cookies in their bakery. It looks like they sell their cookies at room temperature, prefrosted. The Swig cookie is served cold and frosted with room temp frosting after you place your order. St George is a hot, dry place, so a cool cookie and Coke are a perfect combo.

My opinion:

I Pinned a recipe posted online that was supposed to be a knock off recipe of the Swig Sugar Cookie. After looking at the recipe, I knew it would not produce a cookie like the Swig cookie. It looks beautiful in the post, but doesn't have the Swig cookie texture. A few years ago, I posted this recipe, which is almost identical to the knock off recipe posted. It has a lighter, more shortbread-like texture than the Swig cookie. I've baked sugar cookies with cream cheese or sour cream in the dough, and thought the sour cream gave the cookie a (heavier) texture, similar to the Swig cookie.  Have I totally lost you yet?  I tried an entirely different recipe, altered a bit to create a heavier cookie. Still not quite right. I pulled up recipes and compared and decided the Swig cookie is so dense, it is likely to not have any egg in the dough. I altered the cookie again, and swapped the baking soda for baking powder. I also tried cream of tarter (see my note below about that experiment).  Yes, I feel like I should be auditioning for a job at America's Test Kitchen.  My final result is a cookie very similar to the Swig cookie. If you strip away the frosting on the Swig cookie, it is a very bland tasting treat. The cookie is so bland, that I added vanilla and sugar to make the cookie more flavorful. I couldn't help myself. 

The End. Almost:

For what it's worth, I've had better sugar cookies. This is coming from a person who has eaten hundreds of sugar cookies in my life, thus far. Not a proud moment. Anyway. I prefer a softer, lighter and more moist sugar cookie than the Swig cookie. After extensive taste testing on several of the Swig Sugar cookies, I've decided the cookie is more like a cross between a shortbread slash flattened out sweet biscuit than a cookie. It is not very flavorful and quite dry- which may be a good thing, since it is often served with a Coke or Dr. Pepper. And don't forget about the flavor shot in the drink. A bland cookie goes well with a sweet drink and/or a flavor-spiked soda. 

I'm standing by my theory that all the fuss is about a cold cookie, served in a hot climate, with a fun drink.
That said, I gave samples to lots of friends, fam, etc. Almost everyone loved this cookie. They all raved about how good it is. Was. Whatever.

Are you still reading? Wow. You get a prize. 

I'm going to bring you some cookies. Yes, some of the one hundred and twelve dozen test cookies I've made over the past few days. I'm not joking. 

Here it is, my version of the Swig Cookie, for your baking pleasure.

Oh, don't forget the Dirty Dr. Pepper. 

You'll need it. 

Update** October 2013
After making dozens of batches of this recipe for the last five months, I've altered the recipe again.
I will enter the updates in RED below. Tricia, a reader suggested (after trying to eat dairy-free for a month) to try substituting shortening instead of butter to get the desired crunch, and crumbly fall apart texture in the original Swig cookie. I tried and she is absolutely right! I still liked the flavor of half butter and half shortening, so I still use part butter in my cookies. Thanks for leaving a comment Tricia!

(Almost) Swig Sugar Cookies

A Bountiful Kitchen

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dough:

1/2 cup butter or  (1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup Butter Flavor or Regular Crisco)

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla (optional) or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

sugar 

frosting:

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon sour cream

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoons vanilla

dash of salt

1 drop red food coloring

1-2 tablespoons milk**

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. 

Tips and (surprise) a few more comments:

-*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? People. Relax. It's just a recipe. 

I posted this recipe because several people have asked me about the Swig recipe.
This is not the Swig recipe. It's a recipe similar in texture and flavor. If you want to try another knockoff recipe, which I mention in this post, you can check it out here.

My work is done. On to the dishes...

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