Shortbread Cookies (aka Butter in My Mouth!)

So this past week especially I've been into the whole bread n' butter thing. You know, like bread and butter, butter + bread, bread + butter and maybe a dash of salt, (cheesy) eggs n' buttered toast, (cheesy) pasta with garlic herb butter on bread...

Bread with oil and vinegar is a whole other moment of joy for me! Fun fact: To test flavored vinegars, let's take raspberry vinegar as an example...dip a sugar cube in the vinegar and suck...you can just taste raspberry (no acidity). Amazing. Food science. Neat stuff.

In lieu of my bread and butter phase, I made some shortbread cookies, because, well, why not?

Like bread and butter, shortbread cookies are simple. And simple is good. Simple is damn good. Few ingredients, banging results!

These cookies can be made big, medium, small, or mini, and you can get creative with the shapes (We have a Texas cookie cutter and a, for lack of a better word, penis cookie cutter at my co-op. Totally random, totally great, but I just stuck with the classic circle shape this time).

These would make great little ice cream sandwich cookies, too!

Anyway, have fun, eat bread and butter, eat some buttery shortbread, embrace your curves.


Shortbread Cookies
recipe adapted from JoyofBaking

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

optional: more sugar (for sprinkling), chocolate (for melting and dipping), sprinkles (for cuteness), sea salt (for "gourmet" sprinkling)

Directions

1. Sift together the flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Beat butter until nice and smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Gently stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

3. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment.

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into whatever shapes you wish using a lightly floured cookie cutter.

6. Place the cookies on the baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top of each cookie and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are light brown.

7. (optional) After the cookies have completely cooled, melt some chocolate (I just melted mine in the microwave, just remember to stir every 30 seconds. I also added a touch of boiling water to achieve my desired consistency). Dip half of the cookie into the melted chocolate and immediately sprinkle with SPRINKLES or sea salt or whatever else suits your fancy. Let the cookies set (I stuck mine in the refrigerator for a few minutes to speed up the "setting" process).