Dough that is soft enough to be extruded but stiff enough to hold shape is important for which type of cookie?

The type of cookie that requires dough soft enough to be extruded yet stiff enough to hold its shape is the pressed cookie. Pressed cookies are made using a cookie press or a piping bag, allowing the dough to be forced through a shaped opening, resulting in decorative shapes directly on the baking sheet.

The dough for pressed cookies is typically stiffer than that of other types, such as drop cookies, which are usually softer and spooned onto the baking sheet without needing to hold a defined shape. Bar cookies, while also not requiring the dough to be extruded, do not take the same form and presentation that pressed cookies do. Molded cookies, on the other hand, are shaped by hand into balls or other shapes but do not require the specific calibration of softness and stiffness necessary for extrusion. Thus, pressed cookies are the best fit for the given criteria.