Grandmother sophie's butter cookies

54 Cookies

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
3 Sticks soft unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon Salt
1 cup Sugar
3 larges Egg yolks
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon Almond extract
3¼ cup Unbleached all-purpose flour (up to 3-1/2)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Have ready 3 ungreased baking sheets. The baking sheets can be lined with regular weight aluminum foil or parchment paper for easier clean-up.

2. Put the butter & salt in a large mixing bowl & mix with an electric mixer on low speed for 15 sec.. Add the sugar & beat on medium speed for 1 min. till smooth. Stop the mixer & scrape the sides of the bowl once during the mixing. Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla, & almond extract till the egg yolks are incorporated. Stop the mixer & scrape the sides of the bowl again. On low speed, add 3¼ cups of the flour & mix just until the flour is incorporated completely. The dough should feel soft & smooth but not sticky. Add up to 1⅖ cup more flour if necessary to achieve a soft dough.

3. To form a cookie, roll 1 Tblsp. of dough between the palms of your hands into a 1-in. ball, & flatten the ball into a 1 ¾-in. circle. Place cookies 1 in. apart on the baking sheets. Set aside 1 baking sheet of cookies at room temp. & bake the other 2 sheets about 18 min. until the edges & bottoms of the cookies are light brown. Reverse the baking sheets after 9 min. from to back & top to bottom to ensure the cookies back evenly. Bake the remaining sheet of cookies on the middle rack of the oven, reversing the baking sheet after 9 min. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 min. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Variation: Before baking , place a chocolate chip in the center of each cookie.

Good Advice: Bake the cookies just until the edges are light brown. This cooks the butter enough to give the cookies their buttery taste. Pale butter cookies will have little flavor. You will need three baking sheets, then the remaining sheet. Even if your oven has tree racks, 3 sheets of cookies won't bake properly.

Doubling the recipe: This is a large recipe, so it is easier to mix separate batches of dough.

To Freeze: Place the bottoms of 2 cookies together & wrap them in plastic wrap. Put the wrapped cookies in a metal or plastic freezer container & cover tightly. Freeze up to 3 months.

To Serve: Remove as many cookies from the freezer as needed. Unwrap the cookies & place them on a plate. Cover with plastic wrap & defrost at room temp. Serve within 3 days.

Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 276 by William Penewit <counsel@...> on Nov 19, 1997

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