Italian-American Butter Cookies

By francesn

- Approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies but it depends on the size of your cookies (and whether you make sandwich cookies) -

Ingredients

• For base cookie dough:
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation

Step 1

Filling/decorating options (depending on your preference):
Miniature chocolate chips, fruit preserves (such as apricot, strawberry, raspberry), candied cherries, dark chocolate or ganache, sprinkles, nonpareils, and/or chopped nuts and candies

For cookie dough:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats.

In a stand mixer, beat butter, sugar, vanilla and salt together on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in the egg. On low-speed, add flour and beat until just incorporated.

Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip (I used Ateco #864). Fill the bag with the cookie dough (I like to set the bag inside a tall glass, fold the top of the bag over to make a cuff, and then fill it). [Alternatively, if you do not want to pipe the dough, you could roll the dough into 1-inch rounds, press a hole in the center with your thumb and place a filling inside it to make thumbprint cookies.]

Pipe the dough onto baking sheets into stars (or other shapes), spacing about 1-inch apart. See decorating options below. Bake cookies until lightly golden along the edges, about 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway through the baking time. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.