BASIC BUTTER COOKIES

The recipe is BASIC butter cookies, it means that you can add anything you want to make them your favorite. You can make great Lemon cookies by simply adding 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of finely grated fresh lemon zest. You can turn the in Walnut paradise by rolling the balls of dough in crushed walnuts right before the baking. You can make delicious chocolate sandwiches by melting milk chocolate and dipping your cookies in it. If you are lover of Nutella, then just spread a little bit on your cookie and enjoy the sweet heaven!

BASIC BUTTER COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 salt

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with mixer until fluffy and white (3 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined.

Form dough into 12 -inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough in plastic wrap. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm (2-3 hours) (You can keep the dough in refrigerator up to 5 days).

When I am not patient enough and I don't want to wait for dough to get firm, I pinch the little pieces and roll them in the ball shapes, flatten them on the baking pan. Ready to go!

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cut the slices 1/8-1/4 inch-thick slices from log with a heavy knife to fill 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging slices about 1 inch apart. Cookies grow inside the oven, please don't try to squeeze all of them into one sheet. If garnishing with coarse sugar.

Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden. Bake time is 12-15 minutes. Do not overbake!!! Cool on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks  cool completely.

I bake these cookies for my son's class and send them to school. Kids love them! Recently , I started using organic white flour, organic sugar and organic egg and it makes them guilt-free pleasures.