Punitions-French Butter Cookies

‘Punition’ is French for ‘punishment’ and the name comes from a little game Pierre Poilâne’s grandmother used to play. She would call over her grandchildren seemingly to punish them and, instead, would open her palms to reveal a handful of butter cookies! See Lionel Poilane, Pierre Poilane's son, made these cookies by hands here and  Dorie Greenspan's recipe here.  These are slightly different from Dorie Greenspan's Sables, I will share with you latter.  These are crisp, crunchy cookies.  

10 Tbsp (1¼ stick/5 oz, 140 g) butter, soft at room temperature
1/2 heaped cup sugar (125 g)
1 large egg at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour (280 g)

1. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric handheld mixer to beat sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy 2-3  minutes.  Add egg and beat until smooth.  Turn the speed down to low, add flour and beat just long enough to combine.  Divide the dough into two balls and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge about 1 hour or overnight. 

1. Preheat oven to 350 oF. Take one dish out and roll on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-1/4 inch with a rolling pin.  Use an 1½ in round or fluted cookie cutter cut rounds and transfer to lined baking sheets1 in apart. Gather the scraps into a disk, chill, cut and bake later.  Repeat with the remaining disk.  Baking one tray at a time until cookies are light golden brown at the edge but top still pale about 8-10 minutes.  The thinner and smaller cookies needs less time.  Let cool completely on the wire rack. Store them in an airtight container up to 5 days at room temperature.