Shortbread cookies

There are some things I've always been slightly apprehensive about making, shortbread, french fries, pie crust, cake from scratch... Growing up I heard lots of horror stories about 'don't even try to make such and  such from scratch it is so difficult, it's worth the extra money to just buy it pre-made and it will always taste better that way too', so it took me quite a while to start stepping out of my comfort zone, which is probably why the first post I ever did involved cake mix. Shortbread was one of those things people had only told me way awful to make, so going into this I was pretty nervous. 

My husbands parents bring us back macademia nut shortbread from Hawai'i every time they visit, and it is one of the most heavenly treats I've ever tasted, light and crumbly, dipped in milky chocolate. Our most recent box was scarfed down by said husband while I was trying to savor it so we could enjoy it for a few weeks.

Since all that shortbread was gone I decided I needed to learn how to make it so I could have it whenever I wanted. It would be worth any strife and misery I might have to traverse. Step one towards that short bread though was learning how to make shortbread at all, and a certain father in law who love's shortbread had a birthday coming up so I had to make some.

Joyofbaking.com provided the recipe and the information I needed to get started. 

Make 27-30 small cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup rice flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1.  Beat butter on high until fluffy
2. Add in sugar and beat on high for 2 minutes
3. Beat in the vanilla and salt
4. Add in the flour 1/2 cup at a time mixing it throughly before adding more
5. Empty dough onto a large sheet of parchment paper and form into a 1 1/2 - 2 inch wide log
6. Wrap it tightly in the parchment paper and stick in the fridge for at least an hour
7. Preheat oven to 350° F
8. Take out your dough, unwrap it and cut it into 1/8 - 1/4 inch rounds
9. Lay the rounds out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment (they don't spread much so they can be fairly close together)
10. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the edges are set.






Don't fret it is supposed to be crumbly



While you shape it with your hands it will 




warm up and become easier to work with






Slicing it was sooo easy





I didn't use the ends of my dough log because they




weren't shaped very well



My cookies turned out perfectly.. until



For some mysterious reason I did a hideous job 

coating them with slightly burnt chocolate...