Day #2 Gift > Recipe for Easy Bar Shortbreads

My mom makes really great shortbread cookies. I’ve asked her many times to try to teach me how to make them — when I try to follow her recipe, they turn out burnt or dry. Truly, I can’t get the hang of her method (which she claims is easy), involving a special sugar, rolling out the dough to a specific thickness, cutting with cookie cutters, etc.

Contrast this with my high school boyfriend’s mom. She had a recipe that involved mixing three ingredients and dumping it into a pan, baking, and then cutting into squares while warm.

Now that I can wrap my brain around.

And no kidding, since high school, these have been my yearly Christmas staple, thanks to Daphne Carver. She put granulated sugar on hers, I put green sprinkles on mine.

My gift today …

is to share with you my RECIPE (via Daphne) for Easy Bar Shortbreads:

1 pound butter, softened (2 cups/4 sticks/454 g) (do not use margarine)
1 cup white sugar (200 g)
4 cups regular white flour (spoon+level) (520 g)

non-stick spray for the baking pans, or you can use butter/margarine
for decoration:  green coloured sugar

Preheat oven to 325ºF (160ºC/Gas mark 3). Grease baking pan with no-stick spray, or with a little bit of butter. Unwrap butter and place in mixing bowl. Add sugar and beat until very well mixed, and quite a bit lighter in colour, about 2 minutes.

Add the flour and mix well. The dough should feel quite firm between your fingers, and will look quite a bit like mashed potatoes. Dump the dough out into greased baking pan. Starting from the middle, smooth out with your fingers to evenly cover the pan. Use a fork to poke holes in dough over entire surface.

Bake at 325ºF (160ºC/Gas mark 3) for 40 minutes. You’ll know the cookies are done when they’re a very light golden brown, and the edges are a darker brown. Remove pan from oven, and let cool about 5 minutes. Using a knife, cut into bars while still warm. Sprinkle with coloured sugar.

Remove cookies from pan once cooled to room temperature.  Store in air-tight containers or freeze in zipper bags for up to 6 months.

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All best,
Shelley