The Vanilla Variation

Remember the good old days when we ate End-All for Chocolate Cookies and talked about funny things like the fireman jumping off my balcony? Did you know its been over a year since I shared that recipe with you all and peer pressured you into trying it? I'm such a good ~~friend~~ enabler.

Seriously, if you need help justifying an extra pair of jeans or a day floating on a river or something....I am your girl. An afternoon nap you say? How about a trip to Spain? You just call me right up and I'll get on it. I can even print it out on some kind of important looking letter-head thing and priority mail it to your husband/mother/boss/child's school teacher. I'm not really sure about gift wrap though. I could look into it if that's important to you.

Umm....maybe just don't tell MY husband though, okay?

Because, clearly, I'm a little susceptible to peer pressure myself. I mean.. a VANILLA VARIATION??!! What? How did that happen? (You guys are such good friends.)

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1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon orange (or almond) extract

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

4 (or 4 1/2 cups) flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla, and orange extract. Mix well. Add baking powder and salt and mix again. Add flour 1 cup at a time. Again, IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE THESE COOKIES RIGHT AWAY, add 4 1/2 cups flour and go for it. No need to chill the dough. If you are not going to use the dough immediately-- stop at 4 cups of flour. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 3/8 inch thick. Bake at 375 F for 7 minutes. Eat and enjoy. Repeat as necessary.

** I use butter that is only slightly softened. Mostly because I don't have the foresight to get it out until EXACTLY when I need it. This recipe is perfect for that. Get your butter out first and then gather the rest of your ingredients and you should be good to go.

** You can see that this recipe really is only a variation of the End-All Chocolate recipe. The texture is the same. The sharp edges are the same. The mouth-feel of the cookies is the same. They are just....you know, Chocolate-Free. I hope that's okay.

NEED MORE??

Try my CHOCOLATE COOKIE RECIPE.

Grab my ROYAL ICING RECIPE.

If you only own one set of cutters...make sure it's THIS ONE.

Use a Joseph-Joseph ROLLING PIN to make sure all your cookies are the same thickness.