frances This is a super easy recipe that produces a delightfully crispy and classic butter cookie. As you can see, I’ve also added a dollop of peanut butter to each cookie and mixed in cranberries with some others. My mother usually bakes them with pecans. You can be imaginative and add in your own nuts/dried fruits such as pecans, walnuts, raisins etc. (whatever you can think of).
Before we start, I just wanted to note that the portion size and method of shaping the cookie dough is catered to a mass production of cookies in bakeries. I usually follow this portion and freeze any unused cookie dough.
Classic Butter Cookie Recipe
YIELD: 120 cookies
TIME: 1.5 hours (20 minutes active time, rest is chilling dough and baking)
INGREDIENTS
14 oz. Butter (room temperature) (400 g)
7 oz. White Sugar (200 g)
1/2 tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp. salt
14 oz. Flour (All purpose) (400 g)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Add butter, sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a mixing bowl and cream until light and fluffy. Sift flour into butter and mix until smooth throughout, it will look similar to mashed potatoes. At this step you can mix in any nuts/dried fruits you have planned.
2. Divide the dough into 6 portions and roll each portion into long square shaped logs roughly 1-1/4 inch in width and height (For some reason, these cookies look fancier as squares than as circles). If you find the dough too soft to work with, chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to harden it before rolling. Wrap logs with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for minimum one hour (best is to leave overnight).
3. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Using a knife, slice each log into roughly 20 slices (the thickness of each slice should be around 1/3″). Spread evenly on baking parchment and bake for 10 – 15 minute until tops are a beautiful golden color. Transfer to an airing rack and let cool before storing.
Storage
1. Store up to 2 weeks in any container. Cookie dough could be stored in log form in the fridge for up to 4 weeks and in the freezer for 3 months.
NOTES:
By chilling the dough it does several things:
- Chilling cookie dough allows it to harden so it is easier to handle and slice into pieces of even thickness, which will produce consistent results across all cookies.
- Baking chilled dough will deter the cookie from spreading too thin and becoming intimate with the neighboring cookies.
- Giving the dough time to rest in the fridge will relax any gluten bonds formed during the mixing, which causes toughness. Tough cookies are a no no!
