Shortbread Recipe
Shortbread is a classic for two particular reasons: 1. It’s freaking delicious, it’s a beautiful combination of buttery, slightly sweet, and perfectly flaky, and 2. It’s amazingly versatile. You can use this recipe to make different shaped cookies, sandwich cookies, crumble for a sundae, crumble for the easiest fruit crumble, the base for a delicious candy bar, and so much more. All those other options will get their spotlight as their own recipe soon, but until then you can start with this classic shortbread!
Shortbread Recipe
Ingredients
16 tbsp (2 sticks) Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Paste
1/2 Lemon, zested
2 1/2 cups Flour
Directions
Cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy: around 3-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add vanilla paste and lemon zest. Mix in the flour on low speed just until incorporated. You don’t want to overwork the dough.
Roll out and cut to desired shape. Place in the freezer and preheat the oven to 350F. Baking from frozen will allow the dough to hold its shape, and will let the butter do its job as a leavener. Meaning, it will allow the dough to rise by creating steam.
Bake until edges are slightly golden brown and sprinkle with sugar as they come out. Transfer to a cooling rack as soon as possible.
