Steps to Prepare Cookies with a Single Dough

• Start with the preparation of the shortcrust pastry. Prepare it a little in advance and keep it in the fridge until it’s time to prepare the cookies. I made it with the Thermomix, but you can also make it with a stand mixer or by hand. Just follow the order of the ingredients.

  

• Put the powdered sugar, flour, potato starch, a pinch of salt, and a packet of vanillin in the bowl.

  

• Quickly mix the dry ingredients.

  

• Add the soft butter.

  

• Work the ingredients until you have a sandy mixture. Finally, add the egg.

  

• Quickly work the ingredients until you get a firm and compact dough. Wrap it in some plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

  

• Now that the shortcrust pastry is ready, you can proceed with preparing the assorted cookies. Unfortunately, I don’t have step-by-step photos of all the cookies I made, but I’ll leave you with lots of ideas to create many cookies with a single dough.

  To create assorted cookies, start by dividing the shortcrust pastry into 2 parts. Take one of the parts, work it to soften it a bit, then add the unsweetened cocoa and mix it into the dough. Now you have a cocoa dough and a white one. You can further divide the doughs and enrich one part with chopped hazelnuts, almonds, or pistachios.

  I recommend keeping all portions of shortcrust pastry in the fridge and taking them out a little at a time. Also, as you make the cookies, place them on a baking tray and let them rest in the fridge for at least half an hour before baking.

  Always roll out the shortcrust pastry to a thickness ranging from 1/8 to 1/6 inch. To prepare sandwich cookies, roll the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch.

  Bake all the cookies at 350°F for about 10 minutes. Adjust according to your oven. The cookies should not darken. They should remain pale.

  Let them cool well before decorating.

  And now that I’ve given you the main tips to follow to get perfect butter cookies, let’s unleash our imagination and prepare many different cookies!

• With both doughs, you can prepare two-tone cookies of various shapes. You can create Santa Claus sticks or wreath cookies or even two-tone gingerbread men.

  

• You can also simply create simple two-tone cookies. Take small pieces of white dough and cocoa dough. Create ropes about half an inch thick, place them next to each other.

• Pinch the ends on one side and start twisting them gently together. You will get a long twisted rope.

• Take a dough scraper or a knife and cut it into pieces about 1 inch long.

• You can also prepare pinwheel cookies. Take a piece of white dough and on a sheet of baking paper, roll it to a thickness of 1/8 inch, forming a rectangle.

• Do the same with a piece of cocoa dough.

• Overlap the two rectangles. With the help of baking paper, roll the two rectangles starting from the long side.
  As you roll, try to compact the roll gently, giving it a cylindrical shape.
  Wrap the cylinder in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for half an hour on a flat surface.
  After this time, with a sharp knife, cut the cylinder into slices about 1/2 inch thick and arrange them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

• The result you will get is this:

  

• With cocoa shortcrust, you can create cookies of different shapes, horseshoes or sandwich cookies filled with jam or Nutella.

  

• You can also create Christmas stars, dip them in dark chocolate, and then cover them with shredded coconut.

  

• Another idea is to make Christmas tree cookies and cover them with sprinkles or colored sugar.
  
  Other cookie and filling ideas: you can also enrich a part of the cocoa shortcrust with chopped hazelnuts, roll it out, and cut cookies in different shapes. Fill them with melted white or dark chocolate and more chopped nuts.

  

• The box of cookies with a single dough can also be enriched with classic white butter cookies, like horseshoes and sandwich cookies, filled with jam or Nutella or other spreads.

  If, on the other hand, you want to keep it simple, you can cut the white cookies with different shapes and dip part of them in white or dark chocolate or decorate them with irregular stripes using both chocolates. Candied fruits are also great for decorations.

  

• You can also add chopped hazelnuts to a part of the dough and make Nutella bows.

  

• Another idea is to create orange butter cookies: flavor part of the dough with orange zest, cut them into star, tree, or other Christmas shapes, and decorate them with dark chocolate and orange candied fruit.
  
  Other white cookie ideas: if you’re skilled at decorating, you can decorate them by creating designs with dark chocolate or water icing.

  

• In short, with a single dough, you can create many different cookies. Just change the shapes and the combinations of decorations and fillings.

  For greater clarity: in the main photo of the recipe, you will find the cookies made with the shortcrust indicated in the recipe. The photos you find in the procedure are of cookies made with different shortcrusts, and I included them as examples to give you ideas about the variety of cookies. However, you can make the same cookies with a single shortcrust. I’m sure you’ll make a great impression both for their beauty and, above all, for the deliciousness of these cookies!