Button Cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a standing mixer (or use hand mixer), cream butter and sugar together on medium speed until fluffy. Blend in vanilla and salt. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl to make sure batter is well blended. Add flour one cup at a time, blending on low speed.

Roll dough into golf-ball-size balls and arrange three inches apart on cookie sheet. Use a small flat-bottomed glass, twisting and pressing down (use a 4 x 4 inch square of parchment paper to avoid sticking. I found a little flour works just as well) into each ball; repeat until finished. Take the end of a wooden spoon (or chopstick) and twist two small buttonholes into each cookie. Bake until lightly brown around the edges about 15 to 17 minutes.

As soon as the cookie sheet is removed from the oven, repeat the process with the wooden spoon/chopstick to reopen the buttonholes. Cool on cookie sheet for two minutes and then remove to wire rack to cool completely. After cookies are completely cooled, stack three cookies, thread thin colored ribbon through the buttonholes, and tie in a bow.