Fast Cookie Recipe For Gift-Giving

These buttery cookies are melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Aunt Nancy and my mom used to make these all the time, but for holidays, they’d use appropriately colored sprinkles on the top. As far as I’m concerned, whoever invented sprinkles should have to eat every single one of them. Right now. Before they stock the shelves with them for the holidays. When I go to the market and see them displayed on the shelves in the baking aisle, it takes every ounce of strength that I can muster to keep me from opening each and every sprinkle container and dropping them down the holes in the freezer cases. I hate sprinkles. Oops…maybe I should say, “I dislike them immensely.” I mean, what’s the whole point of those irritating little seed-like things that fall all over your carpet, your table, your book, your desk, your countertop, your car seat, and your dog. They fall in your bed, in the sink, in the oven, in your opened mail, in the neighbor’s Margarita, and in your blouse.

Sheesh…I better get back to this divine butter cookie recipe before I work myself into such a tizzy that I head on over to my friendly neighborhood grocery store and…

DIVINE BUTTER COOKIES (makes about 5 dozen cookies)

Your Ingredients:

1-pound unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2-tsp salt
3-tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
4 cups all-purpose flour

USING an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar, salt and pure vanilla extract and beat until smooth and creamy.

ADD the egg yolks and beat until well incorporated. (don’t forget to scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl)

TURN the mixer speed down and add the flour a little at a time (so you don’t wind up wearing it) until just incorporated.

PLACE dough on a floured surface (flour your hands too because dough is sticky) and knead a few times to smooth out the dough.

WRAP the ball of dough in plastic wrap. If you’d like to slice the cookies instead of making shapes, roll the dough into a log.

REFRIGERATE wrapped dough for several hours (it makes it much easier to handle). You can even freeze the dough until ready to use.

PREHEAT oven to 325˚F on the day of baking.

REMOVE the dough from the fridge.

LINE 5 cookie sheets with parchment paper (12 cookies per sheet).

IF you’ve rolled a log, you can slice 1/4-inch rounds and place on cookie sheets about an inch apart. Although they really don’t spread, you still need air around each cookie.

BAKE until they just get a hint of gold around the edges, about 15-17 minutes. DO NOT look for your cookie to brown. Okay, maybe just a teensy bit.

IF you’ve decided to make shapes, the dough temperature needs to be a bit toward room temperature (but not all the way) so that it’s more pliable. If the dough becomes too soft, just stick it back in the fridge. You can use a cookie press or roll out the dough with a rolling pin (they sometimes have smaller cookie rolling pins at Target in the $1.00 aisle near the front of the store) and use your favorite cookie cutters. With either, you’ll need a floured surface and you’ll need to dip the cookie press or cookie cutters into the flour after each cut. Remember, the warmer the dough becomes, the stickier it is.

PLACE cutout cookies on baking sheets and follow instructions from above.

REMOVE from oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes on its cookie sheet because if you attempt to transfer them to a cookie rack while they’re warm, they’ll fall apart and you’ll be pretty pissed.

WHEN cookies have cooled a bit, use a metal spatula to transfer them to a cookie cooling rack. Aren’t you glad you waited?

Note: Although there are many things that you could do with this recipe, my absolute favorite is to make two batches of dough and add Heath Bar Chips to one of the batches. I add the chips when they first come out of the mixing bowl and I just knead them right in. OMG, these are so incredibly delicious! Then I sprinkle confectioners sugar on the second batch right after they’ve come out of the oven. It’s really easy if you use a shaker.

I also like to give these as gifts. And as much as it stresses me to admit it, I will put the damn sprinkles on the butter cookies right before they go into the oven. People always make “ooh and aah” noises over them. Especially when I put the red and green ones on the butter cookies for Christmas. But that’s only until some of those sprinkles fall down the front of their shirt and they pick, pick, pick with their hand down their shirt or blouse trying to remove the things. I should really tell them that they’ll never get them all. They can pick until sprinkles go out of style…and you know what that means, don’t you? It’ll NEVER happen in a MILLION years!

Always Enjoy!