Slice & Bake Cookies

Instructions

1. 1

   Cream the butter and sugars

   Beat the softened butter with the granulated and powdered sugars on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and noticeably lighter in texture. The powdered sugar is doing quiet work here — its cornstarch keeps the crumb short and sandy, which is exactly what makes a sliced cookie snap cleanly instead of bending.

2. 2

   Add the yolks, vanilla, and salt

   Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla and salt, scraping the bowl well after each addition. Yolks only, no whites: the whites add water and structure that would make these chewy and puffy, and you want tender and crisp.

3. 3

   Work in the flour

   Whisk the flour and baking powder together, add them all at once, and mix on low just until the last dry streaks disappear. Stop there. The dough will look slightly crumbly in the bowl and that's correct — it comes together under your hands in the next step. Overworking it now gives you tough, dense cookies.

4. 4

   Roll into logs

   Tip the dough onto the counter, press it into a cohesive mass, and divide it in half. Roll each half into a log about 9 inches long and 1 3/4 inches thick. Lay each log on a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment, roll it up snugly, and twist the ends closed like a candy wrapper to compact the dough and push out air pockets.

5. 5

   Chill until firm

   Refrigerate the wrapped logs at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. They keep 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer. If you want perfectly round cookies rather than one flat side, rest the logs in the folds of a crumpled kitchen towel and give them a quarter turn every 15 minutes for the first hour, until they're too firm to slump.

6. 6

   Coat and slice

   Heat the oven to 350°F and line two sheet pans with parchment. Unwrap one log, brush it very lightly with water, and roll it through the sanding sugar to coat the sides. Slice into 1/2-inch rounds with a long, sharp knife, rotating the log a quarter turn every few cuts so it doesn't flatten. Keep the second log in the fridge until you're ready for it.

7. 7

   Bake

   Space the rounds 2 inches apart and bake 13 to 15 minutes, one pan at a time, until the edges are lightly golden and the tops look dry and set. The centers will still seem soft — they firm up as they cool. If a pan of dough warmed up while you were slicing, chill it 10 minutes before baking or the cookies will spread thin.

8. 8

   Cool

   Let the cookies sit on the pan 5 minutes to set, then move them to a rack to cool completely. They reach their full crispness once cold, so taste one then before deciding whether to pull the next batch earlier or later.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  A warm log is the enemy of a clean slice. If the dough softens while you work, put it back in the fridge for 15 minutes — cold dough gives you sharp, even rounds and cookies that hold their shape.

• 2.

  Wipe your knife blade between every few cuts. Sugar and butter build up on the edge and start dragging the dough instead of cutting it.

• 3.

  Fold up to 3/4 cup of finely chopped add-ins into the finished dough: toasted pecans, mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries, or citrus zest. Keep the pieces small, or the log will tear apart at the slices.

• 4.

  Freeze one log and bake the other. Frozen logs slice beautifully straight from the freezer — just let them sit on the counter 10 minutes to take the hardest edge off, and add a minute or two to the bake time.

• 5.

  Thickness controls the texture. Slice at 1/4 inch for thin, snappy cookies (bake 10 to 11 minutes) or a full 1/2 inch for a tender, shortbread-like center.

• 6.

  Rolling the log in sanding sugar before slicing gives every cookie a sparkling sugared rim with no extra effort. Finely chopped nuts or sprinkles work the same way.

Equipment

• Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
• Rubber spatula
• Plastic wrap or parchment paper
• Long sharp chef's knife
• 2 rimmed baking sheets
• Wire cooling rack
• Kitchen scale (recommended)

Storage