I love the holidays! But I especially love the baking 😉  If you’re part of my Secret Society on FB, we’re hosting 12 days of Cookies.  Each day we put a call-out for classic Christmas Cookie recipe’s!  Today was day 1 (December 2, 2015) and we’re kicking it off with Classic Shortbread!

 

Classic Shortbread
Author: adapted from BHG New Cookbook
Ingredients
  • 1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Butter
Instructions
  1. In a medium sized bowl for mixing, combine the flour and sugar. With a pastry cutter (or fork), cut in the butter until the entire mixture looks like find crumbs and begins to cling together. Form this mixture into a ball and knead the dough until smooth.
  2. To make shortbread wedges, using an ungreased cookie sheet pat out (or roll) the dough into a circle approximately 8 inches. Cut circle into desired wedges. Leaving the wedges in a circle, bake at 325F for 25-30 minutes, or until the bottom begins to brown and the middle of the wedges are set. While still warm, cut the wedges and allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for approximately 5 minutes. Once cooled, you can transfer them to a wire rack.
  3. To make shortbread strips, roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to approximately a half inch thick rectangle (approx. 6×8 inches). With a knife, cut the rectangle into 2×1 inch strips (approximately 24). Place each strip 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325F for 20-25 minutes.
  4. Variations:
  5. Butter-Pecan – Prepare as above substituting brown sugar. Once the butter has been cut in, add 2 Tbsp finely shopped pecans. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp vanilla into mixture before kneading.
  6. Lemon-Poppy Seed – Prepare as above. Add in 1 Tbsp poppy seeds into the flour mixture and 1 tsp of finely shredded lemon peel when cutting in the butter.
  7. Oatmeal – Prepare as above, reducing the all-purpose flour to 1 cup. Once the butter has been cut in, add 1/3 Cup of quick-cooking rolled oats.
  8. Spiced Shortbread – Prepare as above, substituting brown sugar and adding 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, and 1/8 tsp ground cloves into the flour mixture.