My little sister Abby is my best baking buddy, and she was living with me in 2003 when Martha Stewart first published her "1 Dough, 4 Cookies" recipes. Now, you can find the recipe in her new Holiday Cookies 'zine. We made a variation on the Orange Spritz, pictured, and my sister altered the Chocolate-Raspberry Thumprints (for one, we used blackberry jam). We also adapted her basic sugar cookie dough, just a tad, for our own purposes. I suggest using this dough as a basis for one or two - and not four - recipes, because four? That's just a bit much of a good thing.
sugar cookie dough, with thumbprint variation
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together one cup softened butter and one cup sugar until light and fluffy. And one egg, one tablespoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, and mix well. Combine two cups flour, 1/2 cup walnut meal or other nut meal or flour and 1 teaspoon salt into separate bowl; stir into butter mixture and blend well.
Refrigerate dough for one hour (or up to a week). For thumbprints, combine one cup chocolate chips and one cup walnuts or almonds; chop coarsely in food processor or with a nice hefty chef's knife and huge cutting board (it'll get everywhere). Roll cookie dough into one-inch balls and roll in chocolate-nut mixture. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, indent with thumb (ok, you got me, I use my index finger), and back about 12 minutes, just until firm. Remove from oven, let cool, and fill with a spoonful of jam - preferably homemade marionberry or blackberry jam. Yum.
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