Cookie Party Cookies

I have never made shortbread cookies before, my youngest daughter loves them, so I thought I would do a trial run for our cookie party this weekend. If they pass the test of my son, he's my biggest food critic, they will definitely be added to the list.  Well they passed, he liked them, so we will be making another batch of these come the weekend.  Recipe is below.

Shortbread uses a lot of butter, my recipe called for one cup cut into pieces.  My recipe also could be done in a food processor, if you do not have one use your mixer but follow the directions in this recipe for mixing the dough.

Just a few of the utensils I have found over my many years of baking: round regular measuring spoons, square measuring spoons with 1/8 teaspoon and 3/4 teaspoon measurements.  And the small ones are measurements for a tad, dash,pinch,smidgen and a drop.  Metal measuring cups, I find, are the best for measuring dry ingredients.

These rubber rings help guide you to the right thickness, for any kind of dough or crust you are making.  They come in 4 different sizes in the package. Slide them onto the end of your rolling pin and roll away to the right thickness!

My flour, sugar and salt measured out.

And, I added 2 tablespoons of my Vanilla Bean Paste (I love this stuff) to the mix for flavor and color.

The easy part, throw it all in the food processor and let it rip!  All done and ready to be rolled in minutes.

Dust up your flat surface with a little flour.  Always line your baking sheets with parchment paper, cookies really do cook better on it, and nothing sticks to it.

Roll out your dough.  I cut my shortbread with this narrow, scalloped edge cookie cutter.

I found holly and berry jimmies at Home Goods, perfect decorations for these cookies.  They didn't need much, you already can see the vanilla beans in them.  Simple but pretty cookies!

Not bad for the first time baking these!  Lightly browned and buttery.  Yummy Good!

Vanilla Bean Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup of Land O'Lakes Butter (2 sticks), softened at room temperature

2 cups of King Arthur Unbleached White Flour

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

3/4 teaspoon of salt

2 Tbsp. Vanilla Bean Paste

Sprinkles/Jimmies of your choice

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cube each stick of butter and add to the bowl of the food processor (see directions below for mixing with a mixer). Place all other ingredients into the food processor except the sprinkles/jimmies.  Pulse until it is well blended.  Then process until the dough forms a ball or holds together.

Turn half of the dough out onto a hard floured surface.  Roll to 1/8 inch thickness and cut with shape of your choice. It will depend on the shape you use, how many cookies this dough will make.  My cutter made 50 cookies. Place on baking sheet 1 inch apart.  Decorate with your favorite sprinkles/jimmies.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned and they seem dry on top (not shiny). Turn the pan once or twice while baking for evenness of color.  Take out of the oven, let cool for a minute or two to set up, then transfer to a cooling rack lined with paper towels.  When cooled store in an airtight container.  

DIRECTIONS FOR MIXING WITH A MIXER

If you are using a stand mixer, mix all ingredients on low until blended, then increase the mixer speed to medium until all the dough is no longer crumbly, and a soft ball of dough forms.  Proceed with directions above.