Cookie-Palooza 2014: The "Mother Dough"

Thanks to everyone who suggested recipes on Tuesday. All of them look and sound so delicious, and I will definitely be making them between now and the end of break.

I feel like cookies are an essential part of Christmas. I never really have as much of a taste for cookies  during the rest of the year as I do around the Holidays. And luckily for me, cookies are everywhere. With so many parties to go to, and so many of the invitations requesting I bring a dessert, I wanted to find a way to minimize how much baking I was doing, without having to bring the same, boring cookie to each party.

Behold, the "Mother Dough". Thank you, Google, for providing immediate results when I searched "One dough many cookies". I'd seen examples while perusing Pinterest, but had never looked into it until now. This particular recipe comes from Good Housekeeping, and serves as not only a standalone cookie dough recipe, but a base dough for eleven other recipes. It's not even limited to cookies! Due to ingredient limitations, I only made the standalone cookies, but I will include links to the others so you can see the potential of this recipe!

I'm just finding out now that my phone deleted almost all of the pictures from this project. Oh, technology. But either way, it's fairly self-explanatory.

1. In a stand mixer, beat one cup (two sticks) of butter, and 3/4 cup of granulated sugar on medium speed for about two minutes, or until creamy. My wonderful parents found me a beautiful KitchenAid mixer on craigslist as an early Christmas Present. Having a stand mixer made this recipe much more fun, and easier! 
2. Combine 2 and 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 
3. After the butter and sugar are creamed (baking word!) add one egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Continue to beat on medium speed until well mixed. I can crack my eggs with one hand now, guys. It's progress. Also, I added a little more than a teaspoon- I like my vanilla. 
4. After well mixed, reduce speed to low, and add mixed dry ingredients in even increments until fully integrated. Beat in until just blended. 

And there you have it- the Mother Dough. For fluffier cookies, I chilled the dough for twenty-four hours before rolling out and baking it. 

For baking:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. After chilling for twenty-four hours, take the dough and roll around in your hands to warm it slightly and improve the malleability. Maybe flour your hands for this. 
3. After slightly warmed, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. This dough is very sticky! When in doubt, use flour. 
4. Cut dough with cookie cutter of your choice and place on an non-greased cookie sheet. 
5. Place in oven and bake for ten to thirteen minutes, or until edges are golden brown.  
6. Let cool on wire rack.
7. Enjoy plain or with frosting and other edible decorations.

The end result is a delicious, fluffy, buttery cookie. Not only that, but as I said before, this dough serves as a base for eleven other recipes, including: apple pie rugelach, fruit bars, pinwheels, peppermint sticks, moon pies, gingerbread, Mexican wedding cookies, and even stained glass cookie ornaments. Hopefully, I'll find some time this break to try one of the other recipes!

Hopefully, this marks me being back on track. I've missed this little project in all of the end-of-semester chaos. If you have any suggestions for recipes or techniques to try, please don't hesitate to comment below or email me at dontexpectmiraclesblog@gmail.com. I'll post again tomorrow with a similar cookie recipe that has a little bit of a twist- Spritz Cookies. Thank you for reading! 

Original recipe: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/basic-cookie-dough-ghk1207 

One Dough, Twelve Recipes: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/christmas-ideas/easy-holiday-cookie-recipes