Although I am not a particularly spontaneous person, I married the King of spontaneity. Being the social butterfly that he is, my husband is all the more enticed to make plans up on the fly when it means being able to spend more time with people. After 4 years I don’t think I’m any more spontaneous than I was before…just better prepared. To help accommodate having last-minute guests and remaining calm enough to enjoy them, I have learned to always keep little things around the house to help me. One helper that’s never failed me is a recipe of these shortbread cookies. Served with a little coffee, tea, and some love, these flaky buttery cookies are irresistible and keep for a long time in the freezer once baked. The key is to start with really soft butter and to hand mix them. The ones out of the box don’t even slightly resemble these delectable pieces of joy. Make sure you share them.
1lb. Butter
1C. Sugar
2 t. Vanilla
5C. Flour
Preheat the oven to 350.F. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla together. Then add 1/2 C. of flour at a time by hand with a wooden spoon until all is incorporated.
Roll out the dough into the desired shape you’d like (about 1/4″ thick). Bake about 15min. They should be very pale golden brown around the edges, but just barely. Warning: if they get a med. shade of golden brown they will taste burnt.
Offerings of a Culinary Pilgrim 
December 15, 2008 at 5:18 pm
1. did you use a baking sheet or a cookie sheet?
2. after rolling out the dough, is that when you cut them into squares?
December 16, 2008 at 8:17 am
Hey Liz, I use a cookie sheet, but either one should work. I cut the dough after I roll it out into squares, but really they support any shape pretty well. It won’t be quite as defined as, say, a sugar cookie, but stars and larger shapes like that are great. Hope that helps and so good to hear from you!
September 9, 2009 at 7:54 am
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