Simply Sweet: Butter Cookies with Sprinkles

I came across a wonderful quote, which goes as follows: "Cookies are made of butter and love." What a wonderful sentiment! I love the idea that these little sweet mouthfuls of sugary stuff are not only snacks, but also lumps of love. 

Speaking of lumps of love, one of my favorite examples is a cookie called the Kaleidoscope Cooky, from the fantastic book (one of the top three in my rotation): Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. These cookies are a very pretty specimen, as you can see here.

They're also very easy to make, with a wonderfully soft dough that yields a buttery, crumbly-chewy cookie. The only time consuming part really is tinting the dough and putting the pieces together to form multicolored treats.

But as I recently discovered, they're equally tasty and can dress up quite nicely as a simple untinted butter cookie.

Really, all you have to do to add color is use some multicolored sprinkles on the sides of the cookies to make them all cute. They work quite well if you use toothpicks to draw shapes or letters on them too!

Butter Cookies with Sprinkles

adapted from Kaleidoscope Cookies, adapted from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book  

Makes many (like 60)

 Ingredients

• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 pound 6 ounces (about 4-½ cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup or so sprinkles or colored decorating sugar

 Procedure

1. In an electric stand mixer, beat the butter with a paddle attachment until it is creamy. Add the confectioners' sugar and salt and beat for several minutes, until all of the ingredients are well incorporated and no lumps of powdered sugar remain. Beat in the vanilla extract, then add the flour and beat until a soft dough forms.
2. Roll the dough into several logs about 1 foot long each. Place the sprinkles or decorating sugar on a large, shallow plate and roll each log to coat. Wrap the logs in wax or parchment paper and chill overnight or freeze up to a month.
3. Remove the dough from chilling--if it was in the freezer, let it warm up just until you can handle it, but not until it is soft Preheat oven to 375 F.
4. Unwrap the logs and, with a sharp knife, slice them into coins about 1/3-inch thick. Give 'em another roll in sprinkles for maximum coverage (optional). Place on ungreased cookie sheets (the cookies will not spread much as they bake).
5. Bake two sheets at a time for about 7-9 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the cookies have firmed up but are not browned. Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.