Stamped Cookies #25 from Your Baking Bestie

Stamped Cookies #25 - made dough November 28, 2022 from Your Baking Bestie

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and granulated sugar until well combined, 2-3 minutes.
2. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together baking powder, salt and flour. Add to wet ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed after each addition until just combined and no floury streaks remain.
4. If using an embossed rolling pin, roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper before chilling. If using cookie stamps, chill dough for 30 minutes before stamping.
5. For cookie stamps, roll dough into balls and roll in granulated sugar before stamping and cutting. For embossed rolling pin, brush pin lightly with a mixture of equal parts flour and powdered sugar and lightly dust rolled-out cookie dough with same mixture before rolling and cutting.
6. Lay stamped/embossed and cut out cookies on parchment lined baking sheets, cover and chill or freeze for several hours.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and evenly space cookies, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I love anything Peanuts and Snoopy so I was delighted to find this set of cookie stamps at Williams Sonoma. I was less delighted to discover they're the spring-loaded plastic stamps instead of high-quality resin or wood stamps. I don't have good luck with the spring-loaded plastic stamps. They break too easily and don't hold up well. Depending on the design, if the location of the spring-loaded press handle isn't perfectly centered in the design, you may get uneven impressions, no matter how evenly or firmly you press on the stamp. See the Charlie Brown snowglobe design below; the handle to press down the design is just a bit far off from the top right of the design so it doesn't imprint as well. 

But I will compromise for all things Snoopy so I (over)paid for the stamp set so I could make these cute little cookies. I tried this recipe from Baking Bestie. The plus side is they taste good and aren't as hard/crisp as other stamped butter cookies. The down side is they don't hold the impression as clearly. 

They do better on a stamped design that wasn't so detailed as you can see from the other stamps I used below. Still, these were pretty tasty. The edges are crisp, the middles are chewy and the fresh butter flavor comes through (don’t overbake or they’ll be hard). You just need to excuse my rookie mistake of not having evenly rolled out dough so parts of some of the cookies came out thinner and baked/browned more quickly than others (Exhibit A: Snoopy above). D’oh! (Get it? Dough? D’oh? What?? I’m tired from all the holiday baking and make bad jokes, lol.)