COOKIE DOUGH BOARD RECIPES

Steps:

• Scald milk (bring just to a boil and remove from heat immediately).
• Stir in sugar, salt, and butter. Set aside and allow to cool to lukewarm.
• In a large bowl mix warm water and yeast. Stir until dissolved.
• Stir in lukewarm milk mixture.
• Add beaten eggs.
• Stir in half the flour. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flour gradually, mixing as you go. You may need a bit more or less than the total 4 1/2 cups called for in the recipe, depending on the humidity and other factors.
• Your dough should be elastic and slightly stiff but not dry.
• Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and very elastic. This usually takes 8-10 minutes.
• Butter the inside of a large mixing bowl. Put dough in bowl and turn dough over a couple of times to coat it all with the butter.
• Cover bowl and place in a warm place so it can rise.
• It will take about 1 hour to double in bulk.
• At that time punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured board to shape.
• At this point, you can shape and fill as desired. To make dinner rolls, pinch off about 2-3 tablespoons of dough and shape into a ball. Place each one in a buttered muffin tin or baking pan, barely touching each other, do not crowd rolls.
• Cover prepared rolls and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, again about 1 hour.
• Rolls should now touch each other. (A little more rising will occur during baking.)
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees when rolls are about 10 minutes from being ready for baking. When ready to bake place rolls in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. They should be browned nicely and smell so good and yeasty!
• Brush tops of rolls with melted butter immediately when removed from the oven.
• Allow rolls to sit for at least 10-15 minutes before eating.

Steps:

• In an electric mixer cream the butter with the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, mix well. Sift together the flour and salt, add it to the wet ingredients beating until just incorporated. Place the dough in a 1 gallon size plastic bag. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured board roll the dough to approximately 1/4 inch thick. Remove rolled dough to a lightly floured board and using any shape cookie cutter cut the dough into shapes. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 10 minutes (depending on the size of the cookies). Remove to a rack and cool before decorating. Place the rack with the cookies over another pan to catch the excess chocolate. Put the chocolate in a quart size plastic bag. Place the bag with the chocolate in a saucepan with hot water. Allow the chocolate to melt, squeezing the bag to mix occasionally. Snip one of the corners off and drizzle chocolate over the cookies. Allow chocolate to set before serving.;
• To decorate: 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped.