Look at me being all conformist and following the rules and putting up a recipe of actual cookies....
Life here rolls along - I hope all you you have peace and joy - in whatever form you need that to be.
1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt
1 - with electric mixer on low speed, combine butter and sugar then add the egg yolk then flour, cornstarch and salt - until the mixture barely holds together. Don't overbeat!
2 - Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until firm. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until it's 1/4" thick. Cut into any shape you like then put cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. Chill for at least 1 hour. [alternatively: shape dough into a log and refrigerate or freeze until firm then slice 1/4" cookies and place on cookie sheet.]
3 - heat oven to 225. bake cookies until just firm but still tender and not at all brown (~ 30 min). Cool for a minute on the cookie sheet before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
The fun part **** substitutions
1 - melt one ounce bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler and let cool a bit. Beat into butter and sugar before adding the egg. Add 1 tbsp instant expresso powder with the dry ingredients. To dip: melt 1 cup semisweet chocolate in a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Dip the cooled, baked cookies into the chocolate and put on waxed paper to harden.
2 - reduce butter to 14 tablespoons, add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tbsp lemon zest with the egg yolk. Add 1 tbsp poppy seeds with the dry ingredients.
3 - Reduce sugar to 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup crystallized ginger finely chopped.
4 - reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup and add 1/4 cup brown sugar then 1 tsp cinnamon or 1 tsp vanilla and/or 1/2 cup chopped nuts.
And the other cookie/not-cookie recipe posters........
Ryan
Sassy
