Vanilla Bean Short Bread Cookie

By tlshinnick

Ingredients

• Makes 12-30 cookies (depending on how big you cut them out)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar/powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Optional: 1/4 of a vanilla bean- halved length-wise and seeds scraped out
• Optional: Add 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder for chocolate Shortbread

Preparation

Step 1

In one bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add your butter and sugar and beat until light in color and fluffy (this is called "creaming").
Scrape down sides of bowl and add in vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. Mix again until combined.
Next add your flour mix and carefully mix until just combined. You don't want to overmix in this step. Dough should come together in bowl and stick together when clumped with fingers.
Turn dough out onto a sheet of parchment, and bring together into a disk. Pat flat. Cover top with another sheet of parchment and gently roll dough out until it is about 1/4" thick (again between the two sheets of parchment). Carefully transfer large flat disk onto a cutting board and place into refrigerator. Refrigerate until firmed up, at least 10 minutes.
Line your baking sheets with parchment, wax paper or silpats.
Preheat oven to 325*F.
Remove sheet of cookie dough from fridge, move back onto a counter top, and remove top sheet of parchment. Cut out cookies however you desire directly onto that bottom sheet of parchment (of course making sure not to cut through the paper!) This eliminates the need for floured surface. Cookie cutting options include: cookie cutters, free hand with a knife or pizza cutter. I cut mine precisely into 1.5"x2" rectangles using a ruler and pizza cutter. I got about 30 doing it this way!
Place onto sheet pan spaced out about an inch. If you want to add decorations like shown, now is the time to press gently into surface. Place back into the refrigerator to firm up once more, another 10 minutes. You can re-roll scraps and cut out more cookies with those scraps.
Bake until firm, about 15 minutes checking after 12 to make sure they don't get too brown around edges. You want a very blonde-gold color around edges.
Let cool completely on a wire rack and enjoy!