French Butter Cookies From Joy Of Baking

Total Time: 1 hr 37 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr 25 mins Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water

Recipe

• 1 in the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).
• 2 add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until blended.
• 3 in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• 4 add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat just until incorporated. do not over mix the dough.
• 5 transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, knead the dough a few times to bring it together, and then divide the dough in half.
• 6 wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least an hour).
• 7 preheat oven to 350 degrees f (177 degrees c) and place rack in the center of the oven.
• 8 line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
• 9 remove one portion of the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured work surface. roll out the dough until it is 1/4 inch (1 cm) thick. using a lightly floured 2 inch (5 cm) round fluted cookie cutter, cut out the cookies, placing them on the prepared sheet.
• 10 place the baking sheet of cut out cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 -20 minutes to chill the dough.
• 11 meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the egg with the water for the egg wash. remove the cookies from the refrigerator and brush the tops with the egg wash.
• 12 then, with the tines of a fork (or i like to use the end of a toothpick), make a crisscross pattern on the top of each cookie.
• 13 bake cookies in the preheated oven for about 12-14 minutes (depending on size of cookie) or until golden brown around the edges.
• 14 cool cookies on wire rack.
• 15 store in an airtight container for up to a week.