One dough, many cookies - by amccorm14

Gourmet '95 had a great recipe that I've used every year since. You make a basic butter cookie dough, then split it in half and make 2 kinds of cookies (or biscuits"> .)

Basic dough:
4 sticks (1 lb.) unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3 large egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla
4 2/3 cups flour

Cream together butter, sugar & salt til light & fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time and vanilla. Beat til smooth. Beat in flour gradually until just combined.

Now you can do anything you want with it, but here's some of the ideas from the mag (all are for 1/2 the dough):

Coconut sticks:
Add 2 1/2 cups toasted coconut. Pat dough into 2 11" x 2 1/2" rectangles, wrap in wax paper and chill for about 30 minutes. Cut into 1/4" slices, then in half again to make sticks. Bake @ 350 for about 12 minutes. When cool, melt 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips and dip half of each stick into the chocolate. Let set on wax paper.

Orange-Cranberry cookies
Add 1 cup dried cranberries (after soaking in warm warm water for 15 minutes and draining) 3/4 cup rolled oats, 1 1/2 tsp grated orange zest. Roll into 1" balls, flatten with a glass dipped in sugar, bake @ 350 for about 12 minutes.

Espresso balls:
Add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 ts. instant espresso powder and 1cup finely chopped pecans (optional.) Roll in 1" balls, bake @350 for about 18 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar. (I find it easiest to fill a plastic bag with powdered sugar, drop in 5 cookies and shake.)

Jelly bowl cookies:
Roll dough into 1" balls, arrange on cookie sheets and make an indentation in center of each cookie with your thumb. Fill with about 1/4 tsp. of seedless raspberry jam, strained. (Polaner All-Fruit works well and doesn't need straining.) Bake @ 350 for about 12 minutes.