Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Day 7 Of Rosie's Christmas Baking - Basic Butter Cookie Dough With Four Variations.

Today is Monday, December 14. I have been baking furiously for the past week. I started last Tuesday. And this is Day 7. Anybody want to guess how many different items I've made? Go ahead. Take a stab at it.
If you guessed 22, as Mr. Hawthorne did, (I hate it when he does that.) you would be correct. I told you I was OCD and anal about My Christmas Baking. It's quite hard being me. Back to today's Baking. Imonna give you a big present today. Imonna give you a BASIC BUTTER DOUGH recipe. Whenever I make it, I double the recipe. I made 2 (TWO) DOUBLE recipes today. The reason why this BASIC BUTTER DOUGH recipe is such a wonderful present is because you can start with this simple dough and, depending on its treatment, end up with wildly and widely differing delectable results. First, the BASIC BUTTER DOUGH recipe.
My doubled recipe for BASIC BUTTER COOKIE DOUGH (BBCD) 4 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened 2 cups sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar at medium high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add in flour mixture until just combined. At this point, depending on the recipe, you do one of two things: either halve the recipe and put each half in a container, cover and refrigerate OR halve the recipe and press evenly into 2 9 x 13 baking dishes, buttered, then lined with buttered foil. I did four recipes today using BBCD. A) Using the 2 9 x 13 baking pans: 1) Brownie Squares 2) Caramel Pecan Squares B) Using the 2 chilled containers: 1) Lemon Cookies 2) Coconut Cookies On to the Basic Butter Cookie Dough, BBCD.
Add sugar to the creamed butter. Beat about 4-5 minutes.
Add in eggs.
Vanilla.
Lower speed and add in flour.
Cut dough in half.
Prepare two 9 x 13 pans. Butter each pan, then butter foil and line the buttered pans. Press dough half in each pan and roll out evenly over top of plastic wrap. Chill. (Both figuratively and literally.)
Bake crusts in a preheated 375 degree oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Let cool, then add fillings. In these 2 cases, a fantastic brownie filling and the most delicious caramel pecan filling. Posts to follow.

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