Crisp Butter Cookies

My cousin, who lives in Philly, is a nurse for the VA and one of her vets brings her a big tub of Amish cookies every year. This year, she brought that tub with her to our Thanksgiving get-together. The cookies were thin, buttery, crisp, and almost tuile-like and she tasked me with trying to recreate them. I have to say, I only enjoyed 2 or 3 before jetting off to Europe for a few weeks and my memory didn't quite preserve their exact taste so I still have quite a bit more research to do (meaning I need to try them again) before I can perfect the recipe.

However, in my attempts to start the recipe development, I did end up making a really yummy butter cookie so I decided to share that in the interim.

Ingredients [yields 1 dozen cookies]:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
½ vanilla pod, scraped
¾ cup flour

The recipe is pretty easy and straightforward. Start by creaming together the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.

Beat in the baking powder and egg until the mixture looks homogenous. Then add in the scraped vanilla bean caviar.

Gently stir in the flour until the dough just comes together. It will be slightly sticky but firm.

Use a cookie scoop to evenly portion the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Use a glass or measuring cup dipped in sugar to gently press the cookies down.

Bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are set and lightly golden around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and crisp up.

These cookies have a v. light and crisp texture. They're buttery without being greasy, sweet without being cloying, and go really well with a cup of tea.

Here's the recipe page: