Ingredients
Perfect Butter Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, super soft but not melted
Chocolate Coating
- 2 bars (4 oz each) good quality milk or dark chocolate such as Lindt
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil (preferred) or peanut oil
*Spoon & Sweep method: Use a spoon to fill measuring cup with flour until required amount is obtained. Scooping measuring cup directly into flour bag will firmly pack flour resulting in too much flour required for recipe.
Directions
- Sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a bowl large enough to hold all ingredients mix egg yolks until well combined. Add sugar and very quickly whisk together. Using whisk, whip for 3 minutes until mixture is pale and well-doubled in volume.
- Add vanilla and salt.
- Add soft butter and flour mixture and either stir with a rubber spatula or use hands until dough forms.
- Press dough onto a plastic food film lined cookie sheet and place in freezer until firm enough to roll. About 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or brushed with butter.
- Dough will stick minimally if rolled on lightly floured parchment paper. Roll dough between 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick. Most important is that dough is rolled evenly thick.
- Cut in 2.5-inch diameter circles and place on prepared sheets.
- Place in oven and bake until golden, about 10-12 minutes depending on thickness.
- Cookies must be completely cold before starting to work on chocolate.
- Perfect easy tempering of chocolate: Chop chocolate in pea size pieces. Place 2/3 of chocolate in a microwave-proof bowl with oil. Heat in 10 second increments. Heat chocolate to 115°F. Wait for temperature to drop to 110°F before proceeding with step 12.
- Add remaining chopped (1/3 not previously melted) chocolate to bowl and stir until chocolate dissolves. If lumps remain, chocolate can be heated in microwave in 4 second increments. It is very important that at this stage, chocolate does not exceed 87°F if using milk chocolate or 90°F if working with dark. Chocolate that is heated above these temperatures will take a very long time to harden and will not snap (be crisp).
- Dip cookies halfway in chocolate or drizzle cookies and place on parchment to harden.
Dixie Crystals Insight
- When selecting chocolate for dipping it is very important to use chocolate that will melt properly. Higher priced chocolate contains more cocoa butter than less expensive chocolate. (Standard chocolate chips made for cookies hardly melt at all!) Greater amounts of cocoa butter ensures proper melting qualities. When comparing chocolate, look at the nutrition facts and study the percentage of fat (in chocolate it is cocoa butter). Select chocolate with higher percentages of fat-cocoa butter.
- European style butter is made in America, but contains higher fat compared to regular butter. Professional pastry chefs most often use European style butter to prepare croissants and other products where butter flavor is of high importance.