S is for Shortbread

Shortbread is rapidly becoming my favorite treat. Easy to make, good with coffee, and oh so yummy to eat! Well on Friday, my amazing mother-in-law knocked on the door and handed me an early birthday/Christmas/just-because present: a shortbread mold!

Earlier in the week I had noticed one hanging up at the Sniders, and got really excited about it because I had never seen one before. So Mom Snider went and found me one for my very own :) On Friday, when I got a bit of free time (time when I *should* have been writing those Thank You notes I'm behind on...), I went and found my mom's shortbread recipe, and made some yummy Christmasy shortbread!

The recipe is super easy, just butter, flour, and sugar.

It takes all of 3 minutes to mix up, and only about 15-20 minutes to bake.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (softened). A great way to do this is 3 minutes in the microwave at power level 2. Softens beautifully, but doesn't melt!
1/4 c sugar
1 1/4 c flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease cookie sheet (or mold).
Beat butter until soft with wooden spoon. Beat in sugar. Sift flour (after measuring) and stir in with wooden spoon. Finish combining with your hands.

If you’re gonna put it on a cookie sheet, pat into a circle 1/8 inch thick on a floured board. Score into wedges. Sprinkle with sugar and transfer circle to a cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden.

If you're gonna put it in a mold, press dough hard into mold until flat. Trim excess off top. Sprinkle sugar on top, place in oven and bake 20 minutes.

Well, I don't think I pressed the dough down tight enough into the mold, because the pictures on the cookies were anything but clear. Sigh. I think I could tell one was an ornament, but the others? Nothing.

But the shortbread was so good, and it's not quite the holidays, so I have time to perfect my shortbread molding skills before they really need to look like Christmas trees ;)