My mother made these every year from a hand-written card in her recipe box. I don’t know if it’s the best, but it’s what christmas cookies mean to me. Missing are the instructions to cut the cookies out with a cookie-cutter after rolling out the dough, and to decorate the cookies with a bit of red or green glacé cherry in the middle before baking. Personally my favourite cookie-cutter is a small tomato paste tin with both ends cut out.
I used to use “cultured unsalted butter” thinking it would add a delicate sour-cream flavour, but people complained the cookies tasted cheesy. I think plain (sweet) unsalted butter would suit the sophisticated palate best though my mother used ordinary salted butter.
225 g/ 1 c butter
125 mL/ ½ c icing sugar
500 mL/ 2 c all-purpose flour OR
500 mL all-purpose flour + 50 mL rice flour
(2 c – 3 T all-purpose flour) + (3 T rice flour)
¼ t baking powder
¼ t salt
Work butter, add sugar.
Sift dry ingredients. Add. Work together. Roll out.
Grease sheet lightly. Bake at 150°C/ 300°F 15–20 min till brown on bottom only.
These are my favorite cookies of all. I think they taste best if they age a little, at least 10 days.
Fwiw, I’m not fond of salty foods but think shortbread tastes better made with salted, rather than unsalted butter.
Comment by Kathleen — Tuesday, September 19th, 2017 @ 17:31