CHEF JEFF — ONE BYTE AT A TIME: Mutti’s Butter Cookies

• chef jeff

chef jeff

Talk about it

The following recipe, Ivy Risch of Aurora, Ill., took second place in the Chicago Tribune’s 2009 Holiday Cookie Contest. They were adapted from a recipe from Risch’s German grandmother, who called the cookies “speculatius.”

Mutti’s Butter Cookies

2½ sticks (1¼ cups) unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine butter, eggs, sugar and salt in large bowl; stir with wooden spoon until smooth, about 1 minute. Combine 2¼ cups of the flour and cinnamon in a medium bowl; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, stirring to make a soft, sticky dough. Sprinkle remaining ¾ cup of the flour on counter; place dough on the flour. Knead, incorporating more flour just until dough is no longer sticky. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator; cut off a 2-inch piece. Re-wrap remaining dough; return to refrigerator. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to Z,-inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheets; bake until edges turn golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes per batch. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining chilled dough.

Yield: 100 cookies.

Approximate nutritional analysis per cookie: 51 calories, 43 percent of calories from fat, 3 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 12 milligrams cholesterol, 7 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram protein, 26 milligrams sodium, no fiber.

Grab more food tidbits at the Chef Jeff blog at GrandForksHerald.com.

Tags: chef jeff, jeff tiedeman, one byte at a time, mutti’s butter cookies, features, food, recipes