Butter Cookies

Cookies are a must in my kitchen. If they are butter cookies, nothing like it. Not the store brought ones though. I don’t understand why people run to the store to buy stuff like this when they are so very easy to make.   The ingredients that we need are the basic stuff  we already have in our kitchen. And for those who says,  ‘where is the time?’ Let me tell you,  it takes less than half an hour and the end result…extremely gratifying.

I made two batches, in one batch I used orange zest and the other just plain and they both came out crunchy & delicious. One more thing you can do to make it extra special, is to dip them in melted cholocate. Hmmm..now who doesn’t like chocolate.. I will do that another day. For now, I am happy with my plain butter cookies.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:

Butter:   2 sticks (room temperature)
Sugar:  2/3 cup
Salt:  1/4 tsp
Pure Vanilla Extract:   1 tsp (I use Nielsen-Massey)
Cake Flour :  2  1/3 cup (or All Purpose Flour or else you can use 2 cup APF & 1/3 cup Corn Starch)
Ornage zest (optional) : ½ of an orange

How to:

In a food processor (or by hand..take a little longer), cream the butter. Now add the sugar, salt and vanilla. If you want to add orange zest or lemon zest, add this at this point. Blend.

Now add the flour slowly. Mix till a dough is formed. Take out the dough and cover it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for atleast one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F.

Take out the dough from refrigerator, roll it and cut it into desired shape with a cookie cutter. Arrange them on a baking sheet.

Bake for 12-14 min.  Take them out when the edges starts to brown.

When the cookies comes out of the oven, they are soft and looks as if it is not done. But don’t worry.  Allow them to cool on a rack and it will harden.

Note:  you can add some nuts like pistachios to make them extra special. If you are adding nuts add it after you add flour and with a spatula gently fold them into the dough.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk, the way I do or if you are lactose intolerant, have it with your coffee/tea :)