Movie nite at Bill's - Rosemary Cookies

3/14/09:  It was another movie nite at Bill's and was potluck.  Jean and Jim brought Chicken Tetrazini (from the Joy of Cooking) and I brought carrots and green beans for oven roasting; green salad with feta, dill and red onion; and my personal favorite, Rosemary Cookies (from Martha Stewart).  I made these for the first time at Christmas and loved the sweet and savory flavors - rosemary, salt and sugar.  

Some things that I did differently than the recipe is I used sea salt and turbinado sugar.  I froze these for longer than an hour since I made the dough ahead of time and travelled to Bill's with the dough.  When it was close to dessert time, I took the dough out and let it soften for about 10-15 minutes.  Bill didn't have any eggs (he's a bachelor - what does he need eggs for?) so the condensation on the dough was enough to get the sugar to stick.  The organic rosemary from Trader Joe's has been the best I've used so far.  Oh and I did not use the paper towel tubes.  That's just way too much extra "stuff" to handle.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup fine sanding sugar

1. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in whole egg and vanilla.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour, rosemary, and salt, and mix until combined.
2. Halve dough; shape each half into a log.  Place each log on a 12-by-16-inch sheet of parchment.  Roll in parchment to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log.  Transfer to paper-towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 375.  Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar.  Cut in 1/4-inch-thick rounds.  Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment.  Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks.  Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.