Easy Shortbread: This Recipe Brings Back Happy Memories

A few years ago I ran a small bakery out of the back of a coffee shop. Things were good with a few simple cookies providing strong, dependable sales. But one year around Christmas I started to think about hard shortbreads topped with chocolate I used to get at a popular local bakery. So I decided to try making something like that. However, the recipe I ended up going with was something I found scrawled on the back of a parking ticket envelope at the bus stop on 2 Street. It was short and sweet:

With a wooden spoon, and very clean hands,

mix one pound butter that has been set on the counter until soft

into five cups of white flour and four cups of sugar

add one teaspoon vanilla

knead until soft and blended thoroughly,

press evenly into a jelly-roll pan,

push in the edges with your thumb,

pierce with fork so it won't bulge,

bake at 325 for 30 minutes.

When it's done, wait for it to cool about 1/2, way,

then cut into 2x2 squares and put aside until solid.

Squeeze a whole lemon into a cup of powdered sugar,

if it's too liquid stir in more sugar, spread it on the cookies

while they're warm, but after you've cut them.

For chocolate-dipped shortbread,

stir a teaspoon of shortening into

melting chocolate chips (set them in a steel bowl

on a pan of hot water and use a wooden spoon

to make thick syrup). Dip cooled cookies or use a spatula

to spread the chocolate. Cool them all in the fridge.

I started with a batch of lemon and a batch of chocolate, cut into 1x2 inch cookies, and a plain batch cut in 2x2 squares. They were an immediate success. While some shortbreads come out chalky, these are soft. A baker friend of mine said she preferred them to what her cafe produced. They reminded her of making pie with her grandmother.

These cookies became a staple to my business. I loved making them because they were so easy, and little touches could make quite different finished products of the same thing.

I noticed other shortbreads on the market use rice flour and blends of other things but I've always thought they miss something of the biscuity wholesomeness all-purpose flour gives you.