Grandma Janet's White Cookies

Place sour cream in a medium bowl and stir in 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. The sour cream will begin to swell as the soda dissolves.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat white sugar and shortening together until creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until well beaten. Add to the sugar mixture and beat on medium-high until combined.
Spoon sour cream into the batter and pour in the vanilla. Beat on medium-high for 3 minutes, turning off the mixer a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
In a separate large bowl, dump 6 ½ cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, stirring together so the powder is dispersed throughout.
Add the flour to the cookie batter 1 cup at a time, beating on medium-low speed after each addition until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is stiff. Depending on how powerful your electric mixer is, you may need a wooden or heavy metal spoon to stir in the last few cups of flour by hand.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours or overnight. The batter is ready when it’s firm and doesn’t stick on your finger. If the dough still seems sticky after refrigerating, stir in a little more flour.

Heat oven to 350°F. Grab a cooling rack, rolling-pin, two cookie sheets, and two spatulas (metal works best).
On a heavily floured surface, roll a huge handful of cookie dough into a flattened 1/8-inch thick sheet, dusting with flour to keep it from sticking to the rolling-pin or counter as you rotate the dough.
Cut the cookies using a lightly floured 2 or 3-inch round biscuit or cookie cutter, turning the cutter slightly as you lift it off the dough. Slide a lightly floured spatula under each cookie to ease it from the surface and transfer it to a cookie sheet, lining cookies 1 inch part.
Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar onto the tops of the cookies.
Bake 7-8 minutes. The cookies go from white to golden brown in a matter of seconds so watch closely in the last minute. The whiter the cookies, the softer they are in the middle. For a crisper cookie perfect for coffee dunking, bake 8-10 minutes removing from oven as they turn a darker shade of brown.
Transfer to cooling rack. Let cool completely before stacking cookies in an airtight container, where cookies will keep nicely for at least three weeks.
Repeat in batches until the dough is gone. Makes approximately 7 dozen cookies.