Simple Shortbread Sugar Cookies
These sugar cookies are easy and delicious, and make for a fun family-baking day.
Recipe
(Makes about 20 cookies, or 1 large pan of shortbread)
Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 tbsp of M+R Organic Soft Wheat Flour (leave out the extra 2 tbsp if you choose not to sift the flour)
½ cup powdered sugar
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
*optional, extra coarse sugar for sprinkling
Using a fine mesh sieve/strainer/sifter, sift together the flour and the powdered sugar into a bowl (you may want to do this in batches). This will remove clumps from the sugar, and a little excess bran from our whole grain flour. Once sifted, add the salt. *The sifting is recommended for best results, you can skip this step if you don’t have a sifter. Your shortbread will be a little less delicate.
Into a large food processor, add the flour, sugar, salt, cubed cold butter, and vanilla extract. Process until the dough starts to form a ball. *You can do this recipe without a food processor, instead you’d use a hand mixer, and you’d need the butter to be softened to room temperature. In general, however, this recipe works best with the food processor.
Divide the dough in half, and on a lightly floured surface form two disks, rolled out into about a ¼ inch thickness. Using a dough scraper or flat spatula, transfer the disks onto plastic wrap, and cover and chill for 30 minutes to an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
After the disks have chilled, cut out your shapes, transfer them to the baking sheet, and finish by sprinkling with coarse sugar.
Bake for about 10 minutes, or until just set (We don’t want these to brown, just the edges to get slightly golden. They will firm up once cooled). Don’t move them off the sheet until fully cooled.
Once cooled you can ice and decorate them, or dip them in chocolate.
Note: You can always skip the chilling and shape cutting portion to opt for a traditional shortbread that you press into a baking pan and cut into bars after baking. *This will effect baking time, closer to 15-20min.
