One Basic Dough Many Cookies

One basic cookie dough can help you create numerous variety of cookies. There are a few varieties shared but many more I am sure you can come up with.

3/4 cup Butter (no substitutions)
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
1 Tbsp. Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/4 cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/8 tsp. Salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg, milk and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Blend baking powder and salt into flour. Add to creamed mixture until blended. Refrigerate several hours until firm enough to work with.

Bake at 350 for 8 - 10 minutes depending on cookie variety.

Now there are all kinds or variations that you can do from this one dough. It makes about 3 cups of dough. I have variations below using a 1/2 batch (approx. 1 1/2 cups) of dough.

Pinwheels - Roll the dough 1/4 inch thick and about the size of a piece of computer paper. Top it with a thin layer of your favorite preserves, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edge. Roll it up and put in the refrigerator until firm. Cut into 1/4 inch slices and bake.

Chocolate dough - Add 2 Tbsp. of cocoa to the dough and knead to blend. If dough seems a little dry, add a Tbsp. of chocolate syrup to make it more pliable.

Thumbprints - Roll dough into balls and add jam in center before baking. You can also roll them in nuts before making indention for another variation.

Cherry Nut - Add 6 finely chopped maraschino cherries and 2 Tablespoons of chopped nuts to dough. Form in a log and refrigerate until firm. Cut in slices and drizzle with chocolate after baking.

Orange or Lemon - Add 2 tsp. of grated peel to the dough. Dip them in chocolate or glaze them with a powdered sugar icing using orange or lemon juice as the liquid.

These are just a few variations. Use your imagination and make up some of your own!

recipe resource here