Basic Butter Cookie Dough

I make this dough a lot.  I mean A LOT.

In fact I made a bunch of it last night and baked it up today for my vocational group.

It's easy and you can add/substitute or change the dough in so many ways to get different flavours but here's the basic recipe.

It's from an old Good Housekeeping magazine.

Basic Butter Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375 F


1/2 cup butter or margarine softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

(I also have a little milk or water on hand in case the dough is too dry.)

-In a large bowl beat the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy.

-In a smaller bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

-Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a bit at a time with the electric beaters on LOW.  I cannot stress this enough.  If you add it with the mixer/beaters on high you will look like you work in a cocaine den and your bag just blew up.

-If your mixture is too dry to form into a giant dough ball add a splash or two or milk or water (I tend to use milk) until you can.  Be careful and don't overdo adding extra liquid...with patience a little goes a long way.  Just don't burn out your beaters like I almost did today.  If you're mixture turns out more like cake batter, you've added too much...get out a cake pan and call it a day.

-Form it all into a giant dough ball.  I usually slap it around a bit to make sure it's nice and cohesive.  Then wrap tightly in plastic wrap leaving nothing exposed to air.  I usually use 2 pieces of  plastic wrap in a plus sign to make sure I've got it well covered.

-Chill the dough for at least 2 hours.  Usually I make the dough one day and bake the next.

-Work with sections of the dough and rewrap the remainder so it doesn't dry out.  I tend to roll out my dough on wax paper with flour sprinkled to combat stickiness.  Cut into desired shapes and bake on lightly greased pans for 5-8 minutes depending on thickness and size of cookie.

It should look something like this,

 If you want drier, more well done cookies make them thinner and be strict about the amount of baking powder you use.  Thinner cookies will require less baking time.  If you want softer, cakier cookies, make them thicker and make it a heaping teaspoon of baking powder.  Thicker cookies take a bit longer to bake.  Mine tend to bake for 8 minutes.

Either way you want the edges golden brown.

Another tip from me is be patient and only bake one pan at a time.  I know everybody wants to cut corners but I get consistently better results if I don't rush and just bake one pan at a time.

Oh and I think this apron I saw on Failblog would be smashing on me when I bake.

I personally think I'd forgo the pink pouffy thing though.  It's a question of style really.