How to Make Button Sugar Cookies

I got the idea for button cookies from here. You start out with the basic sugar cookie recipe and add colored food coloring. We have never made sugar cookies before and had fun playing with the dough consistency.

Ingredients

    * 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus a little more for work surface

    * 1/4 teaspoon salt 

    * 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

    * 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 

    * 1 cup granulated sugar 

    * 1 large egg

    * 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

    * food coloring

    * Sanding sugar for sprinkling 

Directions-

• Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl and then set it aside.
• Mix the butter and granulated sugar into a seperate bowl and mix that (on medium if you have an electric mixer) until the it’s pale and fluffy.
• Add an egg and vanilla. By this time I’m sure you’re arm’s getting tired, but if you have an electric mixer, reduce the speed to low.
• Now add your original flour mixture; and mix them together until no visible difference remains.

 Divide the dough into thirds, and knead one color of food coloring into the first piece and then your second food coloring into another. We just used 1 color, but still divided it to make it easier to work with. This could take several minutes to get the color consistency you want. We used 3 drops of red food coloring.

 Look how cute and pink the dough looks! Shape all three pieces into disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (about an hour).

Preheat your oven to 325. Remove one disk from refrigerator and let it stand at room temperature until slightly soft, which takes about 5 to 10 minutes. Roll out dough on a piece of lightly floured parchment to a 1/8-inch thickness, dusting with flour as needed. Cut out circles with a 1 3/4 inch round cutter, then lightly press with a 1 1/2 inch round cutter. Make your button holes with a skewer. We apparently don't have any cookie cutters so with the help of David we improvised! We used a wine glass to cut the circles and a sake glass to do the smaller inner imprint. He then rigged me up a press with 4 skewers to make the button holes (how clever).

Reroll scraps, and cut. (If dough becomes too soft because you keep messing up, refrigerate it for 10 minutes and problem solved.) Repeat with remaining dough. Space 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and sprinkle them with the sanding sugar (I couldn't find sanding sugar anywhere so I just left it off). The websites instructions say to cook for 16-18 mins and please don't listen to that unless you want flat discs for throwing. We tried the cookies a week before the shower to test and by the next morning they were as hard as a rock. So, this time around we cooked for 10-11 mins and they were perfect!

 This basic sugar cookie recipe would be great for heart cookies for valentines day coming up or anything else you wanted to make!