Most Cookies Can Be Made With Cold, Fatty Butter.
It is at this point that seasonal bakers around the world bookmark cookie recipes, track special ingredients, and panic when they realize they forgot to leave the butter to soften. Welcome to cookie season.
Full disclosure: I absolutely hate making cookies. Pastry , choux pastry, meringue , custard , and even candy – it’s damn hard time compared to him, because the liver requires more patience and precision than I ever wanted to spend. What I hate the most is waiting – until the butter softens, the dough cools overnight, until the dough is hot enough to be scooped up or rolled or whatever. Surprisingly, when it comes to cookies, skipping the softening step completely is more than just a shortcut; it actually gets much easier.
Starting with hard butter probably breaks all of your baker’s instincts, but I promise it will. If you are using a stand mixer, cut the cold butter into chunks, toss it in a bowl of sugar, and shake the paddle at medium to high speed until the butter starts to smear on the sides. Start your recipe. However, a food processor makes it even easier: add the diced butter with the rest of the ingredients, and beat until the dough starts to clump – no cream required. I learned this from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen and have been preaching the cold butter cookie gospel ever since. It is a life-changing method; I happily made cookies for Christmas last year and they were divine .
Cold oil not only speeds up the process. It also causes the dough to be warm enough to roll out or pick out right away, but not warm enough to melt as soon as you touch it. If you’re making holiday shaped sugar cookies or sliced and saber baked, you can freeze the rolled dough indefinitely for a cookie on request . If you’re still not sure if you’re going to try this with your favorite recipe, my advice is to do it anyway – Deb says the cold butter hasn’t let her down yet, and I tend to trust her .