Assemble your ingredients

Combine flours, baking powder, salt, and spices in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Pulse a few times to mix.

Add the butter, and pulse until the pieces of butter are small (less than pea-sized). Each of my pulses was about 2 seconds long, and I pulsed about 5 times.

Add the sugar, milk, and vanilla, then pulse until the dough comes together. It took me about 5 pulses. If the dough is too sticky, add some flour a tablespoon at a time and pulse until you get a dough which is soft but not too sticky.

Dump the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to gather it together into a ball. Flatten it into a disk, and refrigerate for at least an hour. I let mine chill overnight. (Alternatively, you could work with it right away, but I think letting the dough rest and hydrate makes for a better cookie). My 3 year old helped me with this step 😊

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Work with half the dough at a time and keep the other half chilled. Roll the dough out on a well-floured piece of parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the top of the dough so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.

Dip your cookie cutter into flour and cut shapes close together.

Use an offset spatula to loosen the dough from the paper and transfer the cut shapes to the prepared cookie sheets. Prick the surfaces of the cookies with a fork a few times. Gather up and re-roll the scraps until all the dough has been used.

I chilled my cookies before baking them because I was concerned that they would spread in the oven too much. Fridge or freezer is fine for this. The cookies should be cool to the touch.

Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through the baking time.

Store in an airtight container for up to one week. Sound the Octo-Alert and eat a fish biscuit!!

Notes: 👉🏻 Comments on The King Arthur website say you can substitute 1/2 cup brown sugar for the powdered sugar. 👉🏻 Instead of rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, you can shape it into a log, refrigerate it, and then slice it into cookies. 👉🏻 My modifications included the addition of cinnamon, ginger, salt, and vanilla. I think adding a little more spice would work well. Or, you could omit all of this and still end up with a good biscuit.