Baking With Hyla Using My Daughter's Recipes

So many blogs feature food.  I thought I'd better get on the band wagon.  (Or at least a food cart).   I actually enjoy cooking.  Especially if someone else gives me the ideas and the recipes.  I recently was recovering from surgery and was home and left to my own devices.  I was really hungry for butter cookies.  Thank goodness I have a culinary artist for a daughter.  We emailed back and forth and she send me a great recipe for these cookies.  

Over the years I have gathered many kitchen accouterments - that basically sit in cupboards and drawers and are rarely used.  Such is the case with my cookie press.  I always enjoyed using it.  I've had it for years.  It's all metal.  The new ones are a combination of see through plastic and gadgets and dials.  Mine is straight forward and simple.  I made the dough and as Courtney suggested, did not put it in the refrigerator before pressing it.  I remembered that I had to get into a rhythm of squeezing the trigger a few times before releasing the dough.  Most of my cookies came out perfectly.  They were everything I had hoped for - buttery, delicate, and well, just right.  (It amused me when I searched for a picture in Google images that this is considered a "Vintage Cookie Press.")

Here's the recipe - and rightfully I must credit "Juniors" for it - via my daughter:

PURE BUTTER COOKIES

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature*

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 extra large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons almond extract (or you could use lemon if you prefer)

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and butter some baking sheets (3 if you have them.)  Mix the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium-size bowl and set aside.

2.  Cream the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high for 2 minutes.  Then, with the mixer still running, gradually add the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time.  Continue beating until the mixture is creamy and light yellow.  Beat in the vanilla and almond extract.

3.  With a spoon, stir in the flour mixture, just until it's mixed (do not overmix the batter at this stage, as the protein in the flour might become overdeveloped and cause the cookies to be tough.)  The recipe says chill for 30 minutes but I didn't do that.

4.  Force the dough through a pastry bag filled with a medium sized fluted tip into 1/1/2 inch fluted rounds about 2 inches apart.  You can top the cookies with colored sugar, put a cherry in the middle or whatever you wish - I personally like them just a they are.

5.  Bake the cookies just until Golden and set (but not brown), about 8 minutes.  Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then slide them onto a cooling rack and let them cool for at least 1 hour before storing them in airtight containers.

*About that butter - I am always amused when I see a recipe that requires unsalted butter and then they add salt.  I personally use salted butter and cut down on the additional salt.  It's your choice.  Oh, and if you use the new olive oil and butter mix - your cookies will be a bit crisper.  My mother used to use chicken schmaltz (another story all together) in her cookies.  Just a small amount.  No one could ever figure out how she made them so crispy and yummy.  Okay - her secret is out.  She would have been 101 last week on March 21.  She lived to be 90.  She was the best cookie baker in the world and my daughter has inherited her genius.