Simple Vannila Cookies

SIMPLE VANILLA COOKIES

The taste of sweet vanilla — which so often features only as a background flavour — shines in these Simple Vanilla Cookies. Not only are they quick and easy to make, they can be prepared with minimal mess.

These Simple Vanilla Cookies include just six basic ingredients, and you can mix the dough with a wooden spoon. They’re ready to shape and bake immediately, which gave my student bakers plenty of time to prepare them — and clean up, too — in our hour together.

Before making these cookies, I had never mixed cookie dough by hand. While I’m not afraid to experiment with the ingredients in recipes, I usually follow directions that tell me to do things like use an electric mixer. It took baking with fifth graders to help me stray from the beaten path, electrically speaking, and I’m so glad I finally did. Watching the dough come together as you stir with a wooden spoon is super satisfying.

If you, too, are a fan of power tools in the kitchen, take this opportunity to go old school and give hand mixing a try. It’s way easier than it sounds, and I think you’ll enjoy its pleasing simplicity.

The taste of these cookies has a pleasing simplicity, too. I fought the urge to stir in lemon zest or freshly crushed cardamom, and I’m glad I did. The taste of sweet vanilla — which so often features only as a background flavor — shines in these delicious cookies.  With their delicate outer crust and soft, tender middle, they are nearly impossible to stop eating.

SIMPLE VANILLA COOKIES

PREP TIME

15 mins

COOK TIME

15 mins

TOTAL TIME

30 mins

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Author: Suzanne Cowden

Recipe type: Dessert

INGREDIENTS

·         1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

·         1 ¾ cups granulated sugar, plus extra for flattening cookies if needed

·         1 large egg

·         2 teaspoons vanilla extract

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         2 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.  In a large bowl, mix the butter with a wooden spoon until it is light and fluffy. Add 1 cup of sugar and mix until combined. Add remaining sugar and mix well.

3.  Add the egg, vanilla, and salt; mix to combine. Add flour in three additions, mixing until the flour is just incorporated after each addition. The mixture should be loose and crumbly.

4.  Using your hands, press the dough against the bottom and sides of the bowl to bring it together into one cohesive mass.

5.  Shape dough into 1½-inch balls (about 1 tablespoon each) and place them about 1-inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Using the bottom of a glass or the tines of a fork, flatten the cookies gently. If the dough sticks to the glass or fork as you work, dip it in granulated sugar between cookies.

6.  Bake until the cookies’ edges just begin to brown, about for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.