Given how crubly these are, what do you think of other baking techniques

Just to follow up. I took PieceofLayerCake's suggestion to start with the dry ingredients and then add the butter. I rolled the dough between parchment and plastic wrap. While the dough was crumbly, I could easily reposition the cookies on the parchment for baking. They turned out great.

Thanks. Good insights. I have a vision for a trio of cookies with slight Japanese influences. I haven't found recipes that exactly meet my needs, and I dont have much time for experimenting. i think for these, I'll go ahead and roll them out, but between pieces of parchment paper and (at least temporarily) sacrificing the dough in between.

You could try a classic sablé mixing method where you combine all of the dry ingredients then add in the butter, mixing to combine. I generally end up with a more stable dough to work with and the sandy/shortbready texture promised by the recipe. There's no leavening or egg in the cookie so I assume she doesn't want the cookie to rise or spread, so the creaming method is kind of purposeless. I would then chill the dough until its easier to worth it. You could even place the dough between sheets of parchment or plastic wrap and roll them out that way. It looks like the cookies were meant to be decorative for a holiday. If you're looking for substance over style, you can try the log method. I just find they end up funky, ovaly, potato shapes when I do that. If you end up making balls, just make sure you press them out to the exact shape and size you want the cookies to be since they won't spread. Good luck!

To clarify a little, Emiko says that these cookies are very crumbly, and several commenters have mentioned the same thing. I wonder whether the recipe might be better rolled into a log and sliced or rolled into balls, two techniques that seem more forgiving than rolling out and cutting with cookie cutters.