What We Cook: Big-Hearted Butter Shortbread ~ page 191

Our Cookbook Blog

Our Cookbook ~ What We Cook, is a compilation of every recipe we (Janice and Carissa) cook - recipes from our cookbook collections, our recipe boxes, and our heads! We set up this blog for friends and family who have our cookbook to let them see pictures we post of the recipes in the book, and also for us to note any corrections, revisions, or additions to What We Cook. We encourage people who are cooking our recipes to let us know how the recipes turn out and any suggestions they might want to make.

In addition, we will be sharing some of our new recipes (along with pictures) that are not in our cookbook. We hope you will help us out and test recipes and give us your comments.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Big-Hearted Butter Shortbread ~ page 191

Ok, here is one last Valentine cookie to consider. I like this cookie because it is the grown-up version of a our cut out sugar cookie. This is shortbread--heavy on the butter and light on the sweet! I like to made this cookie for wedding showers and ice just half of the heart with white glaze--it really does look very elegant.

I got some help rolling out cookies on Valentine's day from a little princess that picked me a bouquet from her front yard (with momma's help!).

What makes this shortbread light is the corn starch that is sifted with powdered sugar. Notice this heart cookie cutter? My husband made this for me about 35 years ago--cutting it from a tin can and then bending it into a heart shape. It is rather primitive, but I have never found a store-bought one that I liked the shape as well as this one.

When you mix up the cookie dough, it will look very crumbly at first. But don't worry--it gathers up nicely into a ball.

The dough is easy to work with, and you can roll it out right away--it needs no chilling time in the fridge, which is a big advantage if you are in a hurry.