Basic Cookie (Spitzbuben) Dough
Makes 4 to 6 dozen cookies, depending on size
This works best with a stand mixer because the dough gets very thick. The cookies won't puff or spread in the heat of the oven, which means you won't lose pretty detail from your cookie cutters. This plain, sturdy dough is also excellent for making Spitzbuben, a German cookie which calls for layering two small cookies together, sandwiching them with jam and dusting them with confectioner's sugar.
2 sticks (8 ozs.) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 to 3 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting the cookie sheets*
-- In a medium-large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and salt. Slowly add the flour a little at a time until fully incorporated. Dough will be very thick towards the end.
-- Form the dough into two balls, place the balls on sheets of plastic wrap long enough to cover each ball, smush down the balls so that they're disks, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Put the disks in the freezer for half an hour (if you must leave the dough longer than that, put it in the fridge instead).
-- Set the oven racks at the top and lower middle levels. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and remove dough from freezer. Dust two cookie sheets lightly with flour (*or confectioner's sugar!) and roll out dough directly on the sheets until it's about 1/4" thick. Because the sheets don't need to be greased, this is easier than rolling the dough out on the counter and then carefully transferring each cookie to the cookie sheets. If your cookie sheets slide around while you're doing this, just put a damp tea towel under each of them and they'll stay in place. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters. You can reroll and recut this dough many times because it has so much butter in it, so do save the scraps and reroll them.
-- Bake the cookies for 3 to 4 minutes, then then reverse the cookie sheets, putting the one from the top rack on the lower middle rack and vice versa. Bake another 3 to 4 minutes. Cookies should be pale golden--don't let them brown. Remove cookies from the oven and let them sit for just a minute or two before transferring them to wire racks. If you let them sit on the cookie sheets longer than this, they are much harder to remove.
Storage
Baked and cooled cookies made with this dough will keep for a week or longer in an airtight container.
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