A couple of tips. First, creaming butter implies more than simply beating the butter briefly until it is smooth. When you take the time to beat the butter and sugar for the full 8 to 10 minutes as recommended, you beat air into the butter, which contributes to lighter, airier cookies. Second, cookies bake best when they are all the same size and when they are approximately the size intended in the recipe. I used to just drop dollops of dough onto the cookie sheet, but I would end up with some underdone cookies and some burnt ones. I have had much better luck measuring out the dough more precisely–either using my kitchen scale or just dividing the dough into, say, thirds if the recipe is for three dozen cookies (as below), then dividing each third into quarters and using each quarter to make three cookies. It’s a little more time consuming, but it produces more uniform, perfectly baked cookies.

Chocolate-mint cookies

1  1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

60 grams dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

125 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar (plus additional sugar for finishing)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed candy canes (about 65 grams)

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and then cream the butter on high for 8 to 10 minutes, stopping every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint extract and beat for another minute. Add the chocolate and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to thoroughly blend the ingredients. Finally, add the flour and mix until just combined.

Divide the dough into thirds and use each third to make one dozen cookies. Roll the dough for each cookie into a ball, then roll the ball in sugar to coat. Place the cookies about two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. After removing them from the oven, wait for a minute or so before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Chocolate-pecan cookies

In the above recipe, eliminate the peppermint extract and crushed candy canes. Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the dough along with the flour mixture.

Peppermint sugar cookies

1  3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
125 g (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed candy canes (about 65 grams, from 4 medium candy canes)
Additional sugar for sprinkling

Stir the flour and baking powder with a whisk to blend; set aside. Beat the butter, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Add the vanilla and peppermint extracts, then stir in the flour mixture. Finally, mix in the crushed candy canes until just blended. Chill the dough for an hour (using a food container, so the dough doesn’t dry out). (If you’re in a hurry, as I always am, then divide the dough in two and flatten the balls into disks, so they chill faster—in, say, 30 minutes.)

Preheat the oven to 325F (160C). Working with half the dough at a time (and leaving the other half in the refrigerator), roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick (1/2 cm). Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool briefly on the sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about three dozen.