Easy Shortbread Cookies
Tender and buttery, shortbread is one of my all time favorite cookies. Oddly enough, I believe this is only my second or third time making them. I’m not exactly sure why this is, other than simple forgetfulness.
Shortbread cookies are super easy to put together and have a very simple ingredient list. Nothing snooty going on here; just flour, sugar, a teensy bit of vanilla, and cornstarch followed up with good quality butter.
Did you catch that? Good quality butter.
You may be asking yourself “What does she exactly mean by that, good quality??” Well I’ll tell you. It means purchasing the best butter you can afford. I prefer either Plugra or Kerrygold butter. I actually have a mild love affair with Kerrygold because it was the first high end butter I ever tried, and I try to get as many people hooked on it as I can because I think it’s just the bee’s knees. If you can’t get either Plugra or Kerrygold (move immediately), grab yourself some Land ‘O Lakes.
And please, don’t even entertain the thought of using margarine or one of those ‘healthy’ butter-like spreads. They just won’t compare here and you’d be wasting your time.
Ingredients
- Recipe adapted from Kerrygold
- 4 oz granulated sugar
- 8 oz high quality salted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 9 oz cake flour
- 4.5 oz cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat to 300
- Turn on your scale and and place a bowl on it, zeroing out it's weight. Measure out the granulated sugar, cake flour, and cornstarch into it. Be sure to zero out your scale after each ingredient. Whisk the dry rations together to blend.
- With a mixer on low speed, begin adding cold butter pieces to the dry mixture allowing something of a paste to form. Once you've added half the butter, pour in the vanilla and continue to add the remaining butter. Make sure the dough is cohesive and well mixed.
- Pat dough into a 9 x 9 square pan or a 9 x 2 round cake pan. Dough should be roughly 1/2" thick. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Score dough while hot out of the oven, then cut completely through once cooled. Dip it in chocolate, extra credit points for you.
Tags: butter, cookie, easy, Kerrygold, Land O Lakes, Plugra, shortbread
