Homemade Sandies (shortbread cookies)

• 1/2 pound butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 2/3 cup sugar, plus 2 tbs more for sprinkling
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup flour, sifted
• 1/8 tsp salt

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Mix until it is light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and salt and mix.

Then add the flour slowly and mix until combined.  The dough may stick to your beater.  Perfectly fine.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and knead it together.  It should come together rather easily.  No need to knead it too much.  Just enough to form a ball.  Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn it out onto a floured surface.  Roll into a flat sheet about 1/4 inch thick.  Then using your favorite cookie cutter, cut it into individual cookies.  As you can see, my favorite cutter is a shot glass.  It comes in handy, what can I say.

Place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  Then lightly sprinkle with a little more sugar.

Place the cookies in a preheated 350 degree oven for 18-22 minutes or until the edges start to lightly brown.

Cool completely on the cookie sheet and then enjoy with your favorite cup of coffee.

These cookies are simple and delicious to make.

We scarfed down a good dozen in a matter of minutes.

Light and flakey shortbread the perfect accompaniment to coffee

This recipe creates one of the easiests cookies I have ever made.

Scottish Shortbread – (adapted from Joy of Cooking)

• 10 tbs softened butter - (1 1/4 sticks)
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour – Sold in boxes in the flour aisle so it can be hard to find

Cook at 300 for 45-50 minutes

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Combine the butter, powdered sugar, sugar and salt into a bowl or the bowl of your mixer.  Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. 

It will turn pale yellow and be really fluffy

While the butter and sugar is creaming, sift your flour.  You can use a sifter but I find that a mesh strainer works just as good.  It also has the added benefit of being a multi-tasker.   This step can be skipped but the texture of the cookies will suffer.

If you don't sift your flour the cookies come out more dense.

Slowly pour the flour into the mixer and mix on medium/low until the flour is fully incorporated.  If all of the flour fails to incorporate you can add a few drops of water to moisten the dough.  The final dough will not completely form a ball on its own.  It should have the texture of playdough.

As you can see it isn't completely forming a ball on its own.

Then press it evenly into a 8in square pan or shortbread molds.  There is no need to grease the pan as the dough is almost pure butter.  So much so, that Paula Deen would be smiling ear to ear reading this recipe.

I just used my hands to form the dough but you can easily press it in the pan using a spatula or spoon.

 Next I used a fork to create a decorative pattern in the dough to distinguish my awesome shortbreads from other run of the mill shortbreads.  This step can also be skipped but I am all about individuality.  I mean look at my characture above. 

I am an engineer, I only know straight lines...

Place in the center rack of the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes.  Bake until the shortbread is slightly tinged gold and the edges are slightly darker than the rest of the shortbread.  When done remove to a cooling rack.  Wait about 5 minute until the shortbread is slightly warm and gently score the surface to make the outlines of the bars.  At this time you can also add more sugar to the top.  I think that they are sweat enough, but if by chance Paula Deen is coming over sprinkle them with a little sugar.  Who doesn’t love a little sugar.

5 minutes out of the oven and I just scored the cookie bar outlines.

Once completely cooled cut through the score lines to create the individual cookies.  They are perfect with milk, coffee or heated and served with vanilla icecream and a little strawberry syrup.

Perfect with Coffee

These tasted amazing.  I can’t wait to go to bed, so that I can wake up and have the shortbread cookies with coffee.