Today I made Mari's basic sugar cookie recipe. One thing I really like about her new book is that it only contains two cookie dough recipes. The rest of the book inspires you to decorate those cookies like crazy.
In honor of Mari, this is the first time I've ever followed instructions. I could not imagine why I was using something like parchment paper to line the cookie sheets with. I had never dreamed of rolling out cookie dough between two sheets of wax paper. Wouldn't it stick? And why lemon zest and lemon juice instead of vanilla?
I didn't have a wire cooling rack, so I put newspaper over an oven rack. And when the space ran out, I just used newspaper. Otherwise I followed Mari's instructions to the letter. One thing I can say is that I'll never bake again without using parchment paper, and I'll never use a rolling pin without making a sandwich out of wax paper for the dough.
I had some trouble with this part: "Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until they brown around the edges."
When the timer would go off at 10 minutes, the cookies would look as pale as they did when they first went into the oven. So I would set the timer for 3 or 4 more minutes and wander off to do something else. When the timer would buzz again, the cookies would be very brown around the edges. I did this over and over! I learned that there's a thin line between unbaked-looking and burned.
