Shelly's Recipe

BUTTER ROSETTES

Category: Cookies

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, very soft
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spoon into a dry-measure cup and level off)
2 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans lined with parchment paper or foil.
Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Combine butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until just combined.

Stop mixer, add egg and scrape down bowl and beater. Beat again on medium speed until smooth.

Stop and scrape again, then beat in flour on lowest speed. Remove bowl from mixer and use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixing to the dough.

Pipe dough onto prepared pans using a 1/2-inch star tip, leaving about 1 inch between cookies in all directions.

Bake until cookies are light golden, about 10 to 12 minutes. The best test is to turn 1 of the cookies upside down; if it is light golden on the bottom, too, they're ready. It's not necessary to change racks midway through baking, but stack 2 pans together for the bottom rack to prevent cookies from burning if you know your oven gives strong bottom heat.

Makes 30 to 40 cookies depending on size.

Storage: Keep cookies between sheets of wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight fitting lid. These last for a week or so, after which the buttery flavor starts to go stale. Freeze for longer storage.

Variations
Lightly dust the cookies with cocoa powder before baking. Sprinkle the top of the cookies with some crushed almonds or plain or multicolored chocolate sprinkles.

Place a chocolate chip flat side up or a quarter of a candied cherry in the center of each cookie.

To pipe a rosette
Start with the tube about 1/4 inch above the pan and at a 60-degree angle. Begin squeezing and when the dough touches the pan, keep the pressure steady and curl around to the left as if writing a cursive letter C. Stop squeezing and pull away parallel to the pan instead of lifting the bag straight up, which would leave a point.