Your Tastebuds Will Thank Me, Your Thighs Will Despise Me

I took basic shortbread principles, made a change or two, and added a couple embellishments.  The work of the devil.

Very Vanilla Shortbread

1 pound butter, softened (NOT melted)
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Neilsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla)
1/2 vanilla bean

--------------------
Cream butter and brown sugar.  Add vanilla extract.  Add flour in three parts, mixing after each addition.  Partway through the addition of the flour, slit the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape the seeds from the inside of the vanilla bean into the dough mixture, and discard the outer shell.  Mix dough well.  (I used my KitchenAid mixer until it seemed to be taxing it too much, then I scraped everything onto a floured board and finished mixing with my hands.)

Divide the dough into two portions, slightly flatten, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for about a half hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 C.)  Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. 

Roll dough to 1/2 inch thick.  Cut cookies, using a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter, and place them on the parchment.  These cookies do not spread much, so they can be placed quite close together.  (I was able to get 3 dozen on each cookie sheet)  Prick cookies with a fork.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until just barely golden.  Watch them closely so they do not over-brown. Shortbread cookies should be pale, not browned.  Cool completely.  To keep crisp, store in a tin with waxed paper or parchment paper between layers. 

Makes 5 1/2 - 6 dozen delicate, rich little cookies

Oy, the fatness.

Comments

[Kristen]

Norma--you devil! My Scottish great-granny is rolling in her grave. In our family we adhere strictly to tradition (i.e., great-granny's recipe) with our shortbread. None of these fancy-schmancy gourmet adulterations for us! I'm probably courting being tossed out of the family every time I use my fancy shortbread pan/mold. ;)

[sandy]

I do hope there will be ONE little shortbread cookie sitting on my pillow this weekend. ONE. Is that too much to ask??
:)

[Mel]

mmmmmmmm, shortbread

It's also yummy with candied ginger chopped up in it.

[Carole]

You are evil. ;-)

[Kathy]

(Hands over ears) la la la la la la

[Mary de B]

Ah, proper shortbread! And doesn't the whole house smell of butter now?

[Lucia]

The sad thing is that these are on my diet, at least theoretically.

[Elspeth]

I really wish you'd headline these posts with something like "Those of you who really have to bake cookies this weekend would do well to avoid this post because you're going to go the market on the way home from work." Consider it, won't you?

[AnnaMarie]

Good Grief those sound most excellent. They'll go straight to my thighs but who cares!

[MonicaPDX]

My god, I've gone blind! Oh, wait; wrong stimulus for that reaction. Uhh...Hm. I can't think of a proper horrified reaction; all I can seem to do is salivate. They sounds sinfully perfect, Norma! Thank you! (Your KitchenAid was taxed? Yegawds, mine will handle kneading a double-batch of kolache dough at once, and it's 30+/- years old! Holy cow, that's some superdough.)

Dadrat it, it wasn't bad enough I was planning on apple pie with Tillamook sharp. Now there's shortbread too, which led to a sudden intense craving for Russian Teacakes, and I don't have any filberts! Or prunes for lekvar kolache. Or-- ::glares sullenly at Norma, The Baking Temptress::

[Marcia Cooke]

Lord have mercy!

[Elizabeth D]

Norma, these are the kind of cookies that you eat two and very, very quickly give the rest away (rendering yourself, for maybe the first time ever, the most popular kid in town. . .)

[Jenn C.]

All I can say is droooooool.

[Roxie]

I'm wondering how one might make maple shortbread. Any thoughts?

[Em]

Heavenly. Shortbreads are my favourite: this new recipe gives me a new excuse to bake some!

[--Deb]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......................

[Carrie]

I have never been much for shortbread, though DH loves them. That is, until Roxie's comment, and dammit, now I want maple shortbread.

[Cookie]

Using maple sugar, right?

Very pretty, The Norma, and thanks for the reminder that I need 'nilla. I'm so thankful that food is the enemy this early in my day. :p

[lissa]

On this very rainy day in San Diego, the idea of baking yummy cookies hits the spot. Thank you for sharing!

[Stephanie]

My husband's grandmother is from Scotland and she used to make the best shortbread. My father-in-law still loves it and I try to make it for him around the holidays, but I've never gotten it exactly right. It's harder than it looks. I'll have to try this recipe and see if it passes his taste test. Thanks.

[Tracey]

Well I see several others have already pointed out your evilness, so I guess there is nothing left for me to do, but to succumb to the buttery goodness.

Your evil by the way.

[Susan Pandorf]

My mother-in-law was Scotch Canadian. I inherited the family shortbread mold, a wooden round with a Scottish thistle carved into it. My proudest moment each year is when I take it down off the wall at the start of my holiday baking and continue the family tradition. But only at Xmas. Not sure why.

That is when I know I belong. Even though I wasn't born a Pandorf, I belong...

Blessings!

[kmkat]

Smokey and I had a conversation this morning centered on heart disease, weight loss, diabetic diets (his), and related subjects. Now you come trotting across cyberspace offering THIS? Begone, woman, and take your butter/sugar/vanilla bean temptations with you!

p.s. I made a double batch of oatmeal chocolate chips cookies last weekend. That fills my cookie-baking allotment for the current decade.

[marianne]

...sigh...resisting would be futile....thank you so much for the recipe...oh, and my hips, and ass, legs, arms, my... midrift....(definitely gonna do some drifting now) oh and one more thing? I love you.
You're taking shortbread to Rhinebeck? Surely you'll be taking these little delights to Rhinebeck...gee, wonder how long those cookies will last.. maybe the trip there? (ok ok, I'll shut my cookie hole now)

[kathleen]

YUMMY though!

[Wanda]

Looks delicious. Uggh, trying to resist . . .::sigh:: resistance is futile

[Carol]

My thighs can go screw themselves...

[claudia]

Bringing?

[Birdsong]

Yum... REAL shortbread is a weakness for me, and my only solution is to not print off your recipe:)

[Angie]

Ohhh, Norma, thank you! I've been looking for a good shortbread recipe and I bet I've found it. I'm going to make them this weekend and my thighs will just have to forgive me.

[Bonne Marie]

Well if I can't GO to Rhinebeck I might as well eat myself into yummy oblivion! No sulking here when there's a pound of butter waiting...

[Sarah]

That sounds wonderful. Still, I cannot help feeling that you are a bit evil. I know. It's a conspiracy between you and True Jeans. We buy the jeans, make and consume the shortbread, and then we all need new jeans. Sneaky. You almost had me, but I do not have the butter or the vanilla bean at home with me.

[minnie]

ya know, i gotta bake for the band parent bake sale today. i wonder how t hese would be half dipped in chocolate?

[maryse]

anything with a pound of butter is god given

[Seanna Lea]

I love shortbread. I tend to make mine with cardamom. So delicious.