Sugar Cookies - Number Sixteen Hotel, South Kensington, London

Total Time: 6 hrs 20 mins Preparation Time: 6 hrs Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Recipe

• 1 whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl.
• 2 beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer or 4 minutes with a handheld. reduce speed to low, then add zest and vanilla and mix until combined.
• 3 add flour mixture and mix until al soft dough forms. gather dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap, then flatten (in wrap) into a 7" disk. chill until firm, at least 4 and up to 24 hours.
• 4 bring dough to cool room temperature before rolling out, about 1 hour.
• 5 put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°f.
• 6 roll out dough into a 14" round (1/4" thick) on a well-floured surface with a lightly foured rolling pin. cut out as many cookies as possible with cutter (2" fluted or plain round cookie cutter) and transfer with a metal spatula to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging cookies about 1" apart. bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until pale golden, 10-12 minutes. manwhile, gather scraps into a ball, then flatten into a disk, and chill while first batch bakes. transfer baked cookies to a rack to cool.
• 7 reroll scraps and cut out additional cookies, transferring to a cooled cookie sheet as formed, then bake in same manner.