Two Minutes Mixing = Butt Ugly Butter Cookies

I baked a batch of cookies made with only two minutes of mixing the flour with the butter and sugar. That is, add two cups of flour, mix at Level 2 for twenty seconds, then add the remaining two cups of flour and mix at level 2 for two minutes. The attached photo shows the results: Butt-Ugly Butter Cookies!

The conclusion from this is simple - three minutes mixing of flour with butter and sugar may be enough. Two minutes is not.

There are certainly lots of recipes that won't yield disastrous cookies if I only mix the flour in for two minutes. But I think that no matter what the recipe is, it's safe to conclude that the ingredients are not very well mixed after two minutes. They need to be mixed for three. I could see if two and a half minutes is enough, but I don't think it's worth it. I will try longer times next, though, and see what happens.