Cookie Dough

The entire post of Homemade Samoas is going to be divided into the cookie dough and customizing the dough for the Samoas.  This cookie dough can be used for other recipes, its kind of a shortbread recipe, so I will make the cookie dough alone here, then make the Samoas on another blog post.

So this cookie dough kind of has the qualities of a shortbread, although I would not eat it alone.  Some type of topping should definitely be added to add some flavor because alone, the cookie is bland.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

With an electric mixture, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a large bowl.  You will add the dry ingredients to this bowl so make sure your bowl is large enough to accommodate that.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl.  Steadily add this mixture to the butter and sugar, mixing between additions.  Eventually it will be easier to use a rubber spatula or do it by hand.  I used the rubber spatula to mix in the flour completely.  Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl so that you get every little bit.  It should still be a little crumbly at this point, so don't worry if it is.

Add the milk and vanilla and mix with a rubber spatula, to completely combine the liquids.  This is the point where I used my hands to condense the dough into one big ball.

Divide the dough in half, and press it into two discs.  Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for about an hour.

After the dough is chilled you can roll it out and cut whatever shapes you want.  The dough should be about an eighth of an inch thick.

The cookies will take about 10 to 12 minutes to bake, about five minutes in rotate the cookie sheet to ensure even cooking.  When they're done the cookies will be a pale golden brown, cool them on a wire rack.

Notes:

~ It is important that the butter is room temperature, or at least thawed in the microwave.  If you do microwave the butter, do so in very small increments, five to seven seconds each time should do.

~ Allow the dough to thaw for about five minutes after being refrigerated, it'll be easier to roll out.