Shortbread Cookies
Baking is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. My mom used to always make delicious desserts, but I was never really a part of it. It was a mom thing, not a family thing. I first started baking after graduating college. It was a way to give a few close friends some sort of Christmas gift. But the Christmas Tradition really took shape about ten years ago when I moved out on my own. I was an adult. I wanted to show appreciation to my family. So I started making cookies.
When I got married, my family grew. So I made more cookies. And I made new friends, and the cookie list grew more. Now we are days away from our first child and I hope to one day bake with my daughter. I want to teach her that love comes to you when you give of yourself.
Enough of that mushy stuff… let’s get cookie-ing!
Ingredients
Cookies
3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature (3 sticks)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dusting
3 big spoons sugar
1 small spoon salt
Directions
Dough
In an electric mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup sugar until combined
Add the vanilla
In a separate bowl, sift the flour and salt
Add the flour and salt to the butter sugar mixture and continue to mix until combined into a soft dough
Dump the dough onto a work surface and lightly roll it out into a disk.
Cut the disk in half. Wrap each half in cellophane and put in the refrigerator. Let dough chill for minimum 30 minutes, max 2 hours. Any longer you will need to thaw them.
Making the cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Take out one disk and roll it out into ½ inch thickness. The dough may be crumbly. That’s OK.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies in 2 inch by 1 ½ inch shapes.
Place the cookies on the cookie sheet
Mix 3 big spoons of sugar with 1 small spoon of salt for dusting. Sprinkle the sugar/salt mixture over each cookie.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I usually do 23 minutes. I have gone as little as 17 for a cake like dough and as much as 25 for a browned crunch cookie. 23 minutes is the sweet spot where you get a combo of both types of cookies
Take cookies out. Set them on a cooling rack. Cool for at least 10 minutes, but better overnight.
Store in a paper container or tin to maintain the correct crunch. Do not store in an airtight container. The moisture will make them soft and lose their snap
Note: The basic recipe was originally adapted from Ina Garten’s shortbread cookie recipe. I have included it for reference.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe-1945855