walnut cookies

1 Easy Basic Cookie Dough 4 Different Cookies is a post that needs to be saved by everyone, who likes Home-Baked Cookies. You will get one easy basic cookie dough recipe, that you can adapt to create any flavor profile. These cookies come out crisp, buttery and delicious every time.

1 Easy Basic Cookie Dough 4 Different Cookies

This is going to be a slightly longer post with tips, suggestions and recipe description. So just bear with me and have patience. I promise that this post is going to be a jackpot for all the BAKING ENTHUSIASTS who are amateurish like me or are beginners in baking and would like to have that one perfect recipe to go back to again and again.

I have been using this Basic Cookie Dough Recipe for a while now and have created numerous flavor profiles to suit my mood and the occasion. The best part is that this basic recipe requires only handful ingredients that are easily available at home.

The recipe has never disappointed me. The cookies always come out crisp, buttery and delicious.

This Cookie Dough is so Easy, Efficient and Delicious that even your kids can bake cookies out of this. 

Can’t Bake it Now? PIN THIS FOR LATER!

Easy Basic Cookie Dough Ingredients – Note the basic ingredients used in the recipe. This list is for about 5 dozen cookies. Check at the bottom of the post, the recipe for 1 cup flour to make about 15-16 cookies.

All Purpose Flour – 3 cups

Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp

Salt – 1/2 tsp

Butter, usalted – 1 cup/2 sticks at room temperature

Sugar  – 1&!/4 cup

Milk, optional (Read the Notes/Facts below) – 5 to 7 tbsp  or 1/3 cup

[USE THIS ⇒ CONVERSION CHART ⇐ to convert cups into grams or ml] I still recommend American Measuring Cup for this recipe.

Few Important Notes/Facts to Keep in Mind – Please read this carefully.

1. This is a short-bread kind of cookie dough.
2. Always bring the ingredients together to form a dough, just gather them. When held in the palm and closed, it stays together like coarse crumb and not tight like dough.
3. Never knead the cookie dough if you want flakey and crisp cookies. Kneading the dough hardens the cookies.
4. This dough can be made and refrigerated in advance and used when required. I like to make Cookie Dough Logs out of it. That makes it easy to SLICE & BAKE.
5. Use of Milk [Very Important] – In winters, I use milk at the room temperature or slightly warm to make cookies. Because of the cold temperatures, the butter hardens up, no matter how fluffy and soft it becomes after beating. Adding milk makes the cookie dough more manageable.  In summers, the cookie dough does not need any extra liquid or milk because the hot temperatures make butter more melting and binding.

Ask me any question in the comments section and I will try to answer to my best capabilities. Please remember that I am no expert but this recipe is close to my heart and sharing it after many successful tests and trials.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF COOKIES

These are the 4 kinds of Cookies that I baked out of 1 Easy Basic Cookie Dough – Tutti Frutti (candied fruit peels) , Walnuts , Cumin/Jeera (my favorite) and Plain Old Vanilla Sugar Cookies .

Note down the Extra Ingredients for the Variety of Cookies.

 

Tutti Frutti Cookies require – 1/4 cup of Tutti Frutti or Candied peel + 2 tbsp warm milk (not hot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walnuts Cookies can also be called as Walnuts Sandies. You may use Pecans instead. This cookie requires – 1/4 cup of finely chopped walnuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cumin/Jeera Cookies are my favorite cookies and I can finish these in dozens with a cup of hot tea. You need 1/2 tbsp or 2 tsp or Cumin seeds for this and 1 small pinch of salt more. Dry Roast the Cumin seeds a little before using in the recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are simple cookies loved by the kids, the most. We need 1/2 tsp of Pure Vanilla Essence for these cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECIPE TO MAKE THE EASY BASIC COOKIE DOUGH 

1. Keep all the ingredients ready before you start baking, especially if you are making all the 4 varieties in 1 go. It can be overwhelming otherwise.
2. Take a LARGE MIXING BOWL. Add Butter (at room temperature) and Sugar to the bowl. CREAM the butter and sugar together for 3-4 minutes with an ELECTRIC BEATER. The butter sugar mix should become very creamy in texture and pale in color.
3. Now, add FLOUR + SALT + BAKING SODA to the bowl. Take a fork and work through the mixture gently, combining the ingredients. REMEMBER – we have to JUST GATHER THE INGREDIENTS together and DO NOT KNEAD them to make a dough. Bring it together to make a circular shape.
4. The texture of this cookie mix at this point is coarse bread crumb like or thick semolina like. It is shortbread or Mathri like dough.
5. THIS IS YOUR BASIC COOKIE DOUGH. In summers, this will be more dough-ish than crumb like because of the heat. In winters, it is still falling apart and that is why we will use a bit of milk to bring it together in a dough.
6. TO MAKE 4 DIFFERENT COOKIE VARIETIES OUT OF THIS DOUGH, DIVIDE THIS DOUGH INTO 4 EQUAL PARTS.

Tutti Frutti / Candied Peels Cookies

 

Take a small mixing bowl. Add 1 portion of the cookie dough to it. Break it down with the fork into crumbs. Add 2 tbsp warm milk + 1/4 cup Tutti Frutti to the cookie mix. Combine with a fork gently to make a dough. JUST  GATHER THE INGREDIENTS & DO NOT KNEAD THEM. Take a large piece of plastic cling wrap. Transfer the dough to the plastic wrap. Shape and Roll it up in the plastic cling wrap Seal the Open sides. The log should be at least 7-8 inches long. Refrigerate for 1 hour before baking.

 

 

 

Walnuts Cookies

 

Take a small mixing bowl. Add 2nd portion of the cookie dough to it. Break it down with the fork into crumbs. Add 1&1/2 tbsp warm milk + 1/4 cup finely chopped Walnuts to the cookie mix. Combine with a fork gently to make a dough. JUST  GATHER THE INGREDIENTS & DO NOT KNEAD THEM. Take a large piece of plastic cling wrap. Transfer the dough to the plastic wrap. Shape and Roll it up in the plastic cling wrap Seal the Open sides. Refrigerate for 1 hour before baking.

 

 

 

Jeera/Cumin Cookies

 

Take a small mixing bowl. Add 3rd portion of the cookie dough to it. Break it down with the fork into crumbs. Add 1 tbsp warm milk + 2 tsp of dry roasted CUMIN SEEDS to the cookie mix. Combine with a fork gently to make a dough. JUST  GATHER THE INGREDIENTS & DO NOT KNEAD THEM. Take a large piece of plastic cling wrap. Transfer the dough to the plastic wrap. Shape and Roll it up in the plastic cling wrap Seal the Open sides. Refrigerate for 1 hour before baking.

 

 

 

Vanilla Sugar Cookies

 

Take a small mixing bowl. Add 4th portion of the cookie dough to it. Break it down with the fork into crumbs. Add 1 tbsp warm milk + 1/4 cup Tutti Frutti to the cookie mix. Combine with a fork gently to make a dough. JUST  GATHER THE INGREDIENTS & DO NOT KNEAD THEM. Take a large piece of plastic cling wrap. Transfer the dough to the plastic wrap. Shape and Roll it up in the plastic cling wrap Seal the Open sides. Refrigerate for 1 hour before baking.

 

 

 

SLICING & BAKING THE COOKIES

1. Take the Cold Cookie Dough out of the refrigerator. Let it sit on the counter for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, Preheat the Oven at 350*F /180*C. Line a Baking Sheet with parchment/butter paper. Set aside.
3. Take the cookie dough out of the plastic wrap. Take a sharp knife and slice about 1/3 inches thick slices of the cookie log. The best part is that you can slice and bake as many or as few cookies at a time.
4. Now place the cookies on the baking tray, about 2 inches apart. Bake for exactly 10 minutes for that perfect texture.
5. Take the tray out. Let the cookies sit in the tray for about  2 minutes. Now transfer the cookies to cooling rack.
6. The cookies are ready. If you want to store or gift, pack or store after they are cooled to the room temperature.

NOTES

This log should be good for a week in the refrigerator. I baked about 6-7 cookies of each kind at a time. You may decide as you want. These will be about 5 dozen cookies, so all cannot be baked together in an oven. Plan and bake.

RECIPE FOR 1 CUP FLOUR = MAKES ABOUT 18 COOKIES.

If you plan to bake a small batch of cookies, which I do most of the time, then here is the fool proof measurement and method for the same.

Ingredients

All purpose flour – 1 cup

Butter – 1/3 cup, unsalted and at room temperature

Sugar – 1/3 cup +1 tbsp

Salt – a small pinch

Baking Soda – a small pinch

Milk – 1 to 2 tbsp, as required

FLAVORINGS  (you can add any of the following for the flavoring) – 1/2 cup of any chopped nuts or dry fruits OR 1/2 tsp of powdered or diluted flavoring agents like vanilla essence, rose essence, cardamom powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger powder, all spice powder, chai masala or 3 tsp of cumin or carom (ajwain) seeds.

Method

It will remain same as given above –

Take a bowl. Cream butter and sugar till pale and creamy for about 3 minutes. Add flour + salt + baking soda to the bowl.

Add flavoring agents of your choice and 1 to 2 tbsp milk as required to make a good dough. Mix with Fork and JUST GATHER THE INGREDIENTS INTO DOUGH. DO NOT KNEAD IT.

Take a plastic cling wrap. Transfer the dough to the wrap. Shape and Roll the log into 8-10 inches log. Seal the ends. Refrigerate it for 1 hr.

Take the refrigerated log out. Let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 350F/180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment/butter paper.

Slice the dough into 1/3 inch slices. Place them about 2 inches apart on the baking tray.

Bake these cookies for exactly 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven. Let these sit in tray for 2 minutes. Now transfer on the cooling rack.

Store or pack when they are cooled at the room temperature.

Phew that was one long post but I hope that it was helpful for you. 1 Easy Basic cookie Dough 4 Different Cookies is a great tutorial for your to save, share and try.

In my Kitchen, you will always EAT HAPPY & STAY HAPPY! Do not forget to try my other cookies like walnut chocolate cookies, jelly thumbprint cookies and more.

Sonal