2.

Pipe and bake the cookies:

Pipe a smidgen of cookie dough onto all four corners of both sheets of parchment. Then flip the parchment over so the doughy corners are directly touching the cookie sheet. Use your fingers to smooth the parchment down. Now the parchment is "glued" to the cookie sheet and won't slide around while you pipe.

Aim to pipe the cookies 30 to a tray, in five rows of six. Pipe the cookies a little more than a half inch wide and 2" long. To pipe, hold the pastry bag so that the tip is perpendicular to the tray and only about an 1/8" from the surface. Really, you are aiming to smear the dough out rather than pipe it out.

Squeeze the bag to begin piping and as soon as the dough has hit the surface of the tray, immediately drag the tip two inches to the right (left if you are left handed). Stop piping and bring the tip back slightly toward the center of the cookie. Lift the tip straight up. This will give each cookie an oval shape with a roughly barbell like swelling at each end, and a peak of dough at one end.

Of course, you can pipe the cookies into any shape you like. Just take care that they are all roughly the same size so they will sandwich together nicely.

If you're a perfectionist and unhappy with your piping job, you can use a rubber spatula to scrape the dough back up and into the bag. Give yourself a fresh sheet of parchment and start again.

Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through, or until the cookies have just taken on the slightest golden color around the edges but are otherwise quite anemic. If you notice the cookies beginning to brown early, your oven may be running a little hot and your cookies will finish sooner.

Remove the cookies from the oven and set aside, still on the cookie sheets, until thoroughly cooled.

