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Sparkly, Very Sparkly Stars

Ingredients

  • 3/4- pound 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt no salt if you used salted butter

Instructions

  • Mix together together the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until just combined.  Add vanilla.  Sift the flour and salt and add it to the butter an d sugar.  Mix until the dough starts to come together.  Dump on a floured board and shape into a flat disc. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  • Roll dough out 1/4"   thick on a floured surface and cut with 1 - 1.5"   fluted cookie/biscuit cutter.   Sprinkle each cookie with a little white sanding sugar and, using one finger, press sugar very lightly into each cookie.  Bake on an ungreased sheet for about 10 minutes--until edges show the faintest signs of gold.  Let cool to room temperature.

Notes

The original recipe for this shortbread is from Ina Garten and she got it from Eli Zabar.  I make a couple of other cookies out of this same dough--actually I make hundreds of other cookies out of it!
...
While the dough operates similarly to sugar cookies, it only has to chill 30 minutes and the taste and texture are intensely better...unless, of course, you make your grandma's sugar cookies--in which case, I know they're much better.  Really.