I love shortbread, and my favorite shortbread is vanilla. This delicious buttery cookie also happens to be a favorite of my father-in-law. I decided I would make him some for when Hubby and I visit this weekend. I scoured the internet to find what I thought would make some great cookies. I found what I was looking for on the amazing website 101 Cookbooks. For her story behind this vanilla shortbread, you can find it on Heidi Swanson’s web page by pressing here. Truth be told, I have no story other than I adore shortbread, and that there is never any harm buttering up your in laws 
… take it from me, some things you just learn the hard way.
This is a shortbread recipe inspired by the version published in The Castle Cookbook, by Marjorie Collard and Ann Marie Lopez. I added a few of my own touches and elaborated on the instructions – the end result is a perfectly light and buttery shortbread cookie with just the right amount of sweetness.
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 pound unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean (optional)
Preheat oven to 350F (180C) degrees (I wouldn’t bother doing the preheating until after you take the dough out of the refrigerator). Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
In a mixing bowl beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and beat again, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl once or twice as you are mixing. Beat in the vanilla extract. If you have a vanilla bean slit it open along its entire length, scrape out the vanilla bean paste from the interior of the bean, and add this to the mixer as well. (I used the vanilla bean and I am glad I did, I think it really adds something, plus its nice to actually see the vanilla in the shortbread) Add the flour mixture in two additions. Stir until everything comes together into a thick dough.
Turn the dough out onto a countertop and divide into two pieces, there is quite a bit of dough, so cutting it into two pieces just makes it easier to roll out later on. Press each piece of dough out into a flat patty an inch thick. Wrap each piece in plastic and chill completely in the refrigerator – about thirty minutes. When the dough is chilled, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out 1/4-1/2-inch thick. Cut the dough into desired shapes using cookie cutters or a knife and place on a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. (You may need to flour your countertop and rolling pin a bit to keep the dough from sticking, I did. Also, when putting the cookies on the pan, feel free to place them close together, they do not spread out much at all.)
Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are barely golden.
Makes 3 or 4 dozen tiny cookies – more or less depending on the size of your cutters.
(I made regular sized cookies, about 2.5 inch rounds. They took 10-12 minutes in the oven and made about 3 dozen. Keep your eye on them, shortbread shouldn’t get too much color. They are a bit of the Nicole Kidman’s of the cookie world *wink*.)
