Here are some proportions that should work:

• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour

It's impossible to say how much flour to use without knowing the proportions of butter and sugar.

We've recently started stamping our cannabis cookies. What we learned is that the cookie dough has to be soft enough to take the imprint and then not spread too much. Look for cookie stamps that have very deep grooves.

Thanks. I did try stamping my standard shortbread last year. I even carved my own stamp in my pottery class . Even though the dough does not rise, the impression - which was REALLY sharp when I made it - filled in somehow. You would only see the impression if you were told it was there.

It was not that deep, I guess. Carving clay is not easy. I spent hours on it. Wasted effort.

I considered making my own mold so I could bake the dough in it, which seems like the only way to get shallower impressions to work - and baking the cookie dough in the mold: but that would be even more work to make a mold like that.

Linnea, it seems you could use less flour, especially comparing it to the recipe Lars posted and my own below. Baking in the mold could help. I have several stoneware cookie molds (from Brown Bag Cookie Art) that I've used for that purpose, and I understand what you mean about the work involved to make the mold yourself.

With some of my molds they instruct you to bake the dough in the mold. With others you to press the dough in the mold, remove it, then bake. Recipes were always included with the molds, but I've always just used my own recipe. You could check online for "brown bag cookie mold recipes." As I recall, their recipes were geared to the size mold you bought.

These are the amounts for my own recipe. I added the salt and vanilla due to taste preference. They weren't included in the original recipe.

2 sticks salted butter

1/2 cup plus 2 T. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour*

Pinch of salt

*After measuring out the flour, remove 2 T. then add 2 T. cornstarch.

I spent a little while looking at molds online - Amazon, eBay, and Etsy - even the ones designed to be cut into triangles look like they don't hold much. Baking it in a small mold would take a long time to make a decent batch. Usually when I bake I am distributing a fair amount of cookies. Molding, then removing and baking, makes more sense.

But since I don't have a mold, I think I'll focus on making a very simple stamp, and see how that works with the recipes you two have give me.

Mine works fine with stamps with less flour. Rolling out on a floured board, they're fine on first roll, and get blurrier the more times one rerolls. A silpat without a lot of extra flour might help. Maybe oil it very lightly 15 minutes before rolling to help it not stick.

4 c. white AP flour

1 lb. standard butter (82% fat) (salted) or baking sticks (100 Cal. per tbsp)

1 c. granulated white sugar.

"Baking it in a small mold would take a long time to make a decent batch."

It definitely can take longer. The molds I have range in size from about the size of my hand to maybe 10" round and square.

ETA - The molds also take some patience.

Chilling cookie dough is more important with butter than margarine. Lower melting point.

plllog, chill before stamping, or chill after stamping but before baking?

I don't generally chill, but maybe that's what is needed to make stamping work, and I just hadn't thought of it.

Linnea, I would chill it after stamping. My shortbread dough is somewhat chilled before I start working with it, and I always chill it again after removing from a cookie mold. That's just what works for me. I also chill shortbread cookies I've cut out before they go in the oven.

Chill it. Plog does not want an inch of difference/in-deference . it works . Butter or margarine. Stubborn to say the least...chilled dough works.

Sorry, Linnea, for not being clear. We've talked a lot about chilling cookies after cutting/shaping/dropping before baking. The reason this is a good idea is because the butter can be too warm in a warm kitchen and get runny in the oven before the shape is dry enough to set. This is much less likely to happen with baking margarine (100 C/tbsp). It has a significantly higher melting point and is easier to just pop in the oven than butter doughs. It also yields a different texture. I wouldn't use it to avoid the chill. It's for if you want non-dairy. IIRC (not looking it up just now), the butter melts at about 95° F and margarine is about 130° F.

I think what S meant was that it doesn't hurt if you chill either, which is true.

Before rolling and cutting/stamping your shortbread dough, yes, you should chill it for at least a few hours, ideally over night.

After stamping, chilling the tray for half an hour should be enough. If you can clear some upper space on your tall things shelf, you can rest the loosely covered cookie sheet on top of mayonnaise and pickle jars.

For molds, I'd think if the dough is a little less chilly, it would go into the crevices better, and also that if it were more chilled before unmolding, it would hold shape better, but that probably depends on the mold and the dough. I've only done it a few times, and I think that was with margarine dough, which handles more easily.