Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

From the book Baking by Dorie Greenspan

Introduction

These are my rendition of my grandmother’s sugar cookies, the ones she used to make for us every week, sprinkling the tops of the cookies earmarked for my brother and me with cinnamon sugar and the tops of those meant for our parents with poppy seeds.

Ingredients

Steps

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
2. If you are making roll-out cookies, working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of ¼ inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly.
3. Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies — I like a 2-inch round cookie cutter for these. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for rerolling, and carefully lift the rounds onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving 1½ inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.)
4. After you’ve rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps into a disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.
5. If you are making slice-and-bake cookies, use a sharp thin knife to slice the dough into ¼-inch-thick rounds, and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1½ inches of space between the cookies.

Notes

You can stir zest into the dough or add chopped nuts, shredded coconut, or grated chocolate. And these cookies take nicely to icing.

This content is from the book Baking by Dorie Greenspan.