Perfect Shortbread

Shortbread might be my favorite cookie. I'm a huge fan of savory over sweet, and since this is basically a butter cookie, it falls right into my flavor preferences. I improved upon the classic recipe by adding some lemon and vanilla to the flavoring, and modifying the standard baking technique so each cookie is perfectly crisp and gets some edge browning.

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Ingredients

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 1/2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) confectioners' sugar

9 ounces (about 1 3/4 cup) all-purpose flour (sifted)

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp lemon juice (~½ lemon)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Equipment

Stand mixer or hand mixer with whisk attachment

9 ½ ” x 13” baking tray (¼ size sheet pan)

Fork for poking the holes

Sharp paring knife for cutting the cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F

2. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or a hand mixer with whisk attachment, whip the butter and confectioner’s sugar until the color of the butter has lightened to off white, and the mixture is well aerated.

3. While the butter and sugar is aerating, sift the flour. (I often sift the flour right onto the same sheet of parchment I will later use to bake the cookies)

4. Once the butter and sugar are well aerated, add the flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt all at once. Combine on the lowest setting of the stand mixture for about 30 seconds, until it is just combined. The dough should have the consistency of whipped butter (because that’s basically what it is)

5. Spread the dough on parchment on the sheet tray to approximately 8 ½ ” x 11”. It should be about 1 cm or ⅜” thick throughout. Shape the sides as squarely as you can to reduce waste when cutting the cookies later.

6. Use a fork to poke holes in the dough. I do this by creating “lines” of holes across the width of the sheet pan, and space these lines about 2 cm or ¾” apart. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

7. Remove tray from oven, and cut out the cookies by dragging the parking knife through the cookie. Trim the edges so the cookie is rectangular, and then slice into into 8 columns across the width, and 8 rows across the length. Each cookie should be about ¾” wide by 1.5” long. Let cool 5 minutes.

8. Separate the cookies so there is space between them, and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the corners of each cookie are just starting to brown. Remove from oven, let cool and enjoy!