Sugar Cookies (williams-sonoma)

Total Time: 1 hr 12 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• sugar, for decorating

Recipe

• 1 in a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, cream the butter until fluffy and pale.
• 2 add the sugar in 3 additions, beating on low speed for 2 minutes after each addition.
• 3 beat the egg yolk and vanilla into the butter mixture until well blended.
• 4 sift the flour and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper.
• 5 add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until blended.
• 6 scrape the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 4 equal portions.
• 7 shape into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for up to overnight.
• 8 preheat oven to 350 degrees; lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.
• 9 remove the dough disks from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
• 10 working with 1 disk at a time, roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of 1/8 to ¼ inch.
• 11 using cookie cutters, cut into circles or other shapes.
• 12 repeat with the remaining dough portions, then gather up the scraps and reroll them.
• 13 if the scraps of dough have become sticky, refrigerate them for 10 minutes before rerolling.
• 14 for best results, do not roll the same dough more than twice.
• 15 using an offset spatula, transfer the cookies to the prepared pans.
• 16 sprinkle with the sugar.
• 17 if using intricately shaped cutter, refrigerate the cutout cookies for 15-30 minutes before baking.
• 18 bake the cookies until they are lightly golden on the bottom, 10-12 minutes.
• 19 let the cookies cool briefly on the pans on wire racks before transferring them to the racks to cool completely.