Holiday Shortbread Cookies

One of our favorite cookies to bake around the holidays has to be shortbread. We tend to do a lot of baking in our household this time of year and Aiden of course could not be any more thrilled. Yesterday we whipped up a batch of our favorite shortbread recipe and as an after dinner treat decorated the holiday shaped cookies with some vanilla frosting and holiday sprinkles. 24 hours later not a single cookie remains....


SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients -
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 to 2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions -

1. In a large mixing bowl combine butter with sugar and mix well. In a separate bowl sift together salt with 1 3/4 cups flour and stir until combined. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture along with 3 tbsp of flour. Add a bit more flour if needed, the dough should be soft, not sticky. Using floured hands form dough into 2 balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in saran wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 300. Let dough stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Lightly flour both sides of dough and roll out between floured sheets of saran wrap. Dip cookie cutters in flour and cut out dough. On parchment paper lined baking sheets, place cookies at least 1 inch apart.

3. Bake until golden around edges and base, about 13-15 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets at least 5 minutes before transferring to a plate to cool completely. Decorate with sprinkles or crushed candy canes.