Butter Shortbread Cookies

It's the last day of 2009 and we are planning to bake some cookies at home. As we both are butter cookies lover, we have decided to try baking our own butter shortbread cookies. Based on our online research, we found out that shortbread requires only 4 ingredients. Sounds pretty simple, isn't it? However, the secret of a good shortbread lies in good quality butter and pure vanilla extract. Despite the ingredients are simple, the toughest part is mixing all the ingredients manually as we have not gotten our mixer. Moreover, due to the nature of shortbread, the dough crumble easily. Probably we should consider investing in a mixer soon.

So, now here you go the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup salted butter
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Sift flour and set aside.
2. Cream butter till smooth about 1 minute.
3. Add sugar to butter and beat until smooth for about 2minutes.
4. Beat in vanilla and mix well.
5. Gently stir in flour and blend until all well mixed.
6. Flatten the dough into a disk shape and wrap in a plastic wrap.
7. Chill the dough for at least an hour.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in the middle tier.
9. After an hour, place the dough on a lightly floured surface and shape it to 1/2 cm thick.
10. Cut into the shape you desire and place the cookies on a the baking sheet with parchment paper.
11. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes in order to firm up the firm up and maintain the cookie shape.
12. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes or until cookies are lightly brown.
13. Cool on a rack and enjoy.