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.)
The Vanilla Variation
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.