Shortbread Month: Vanilla Shortbread

Ever since we tried our first shortbread recipe, we have been sold! Therefore we thought it would be fun to try some more different variations and we decided to make a theme out of it. So throughout September we will post 1 shortbread recipe each week. We started with the basic vanilla shortbread cookies. This recipe is great for using cookie cutters, because the batter won't spread in the oven. This is because there is no baking powder involved in shortbread recipes. The original recipe is from Vanilla Bean Baker. Because we are not really the decorating type, we left them as is but of course you can go mad on these with icing, jam, etc.

Vanilla Shortbread (makes about 25 cookies)

- 1 cup butter (for vegan use plant based margarine)
- 0.5 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 0.5 cup corn starch
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Slice the butter into thin pieces. If you use cold butter, you don't have to chill the dough later on. Mix until smooth, but don't over beat it. Add the sugar to the mixture and combine. In a smaller bowl mix corn starch with flour before adding it to the mixture, together with the vanilla. Mix until just combined, no dry patches should be visible.

Scrape the bowl and form a nice ball of cookie dough. Use some flour on your workspace, before rolling the dough. Then I used butterfly cookie cutters to cut some cookies from the dough, but just use any cutter you have at hand. Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper. When you can't cut out any more cookies, just pack the dough together again and roll it out once more until you have used up all the dough. Bake the cookies in a pre heated oven on 150 degrees for about 12 minutes until the edges start to turn golden. I had to bake in 2 batches. On the picture is the 2nd batch, but my first batch was bigger.

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