Shortbread Cookies

This simple recipes yields rich, crumbly shortbread cookies that will quickly disappear from even the hardest to reach cookie jars. Although I almost never recommend it, in this rare instance I highly recommend using salted butter as there's not enough liquid to properly absorb and disburse salt.

Prep: 15 min
Chill: 1 hour 45 min
Cook: 30 min
Total: 2 hour 30 min
Yields 60 2-inch cookies

Two Hours Before
½ pound salted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
Place butter on the counter to rise to room temperature.
Batter
reserved salted butter (2 sticks)
¾ cup sugar
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together with an electric hand mixer on low speed.
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Add egg yolk and vanilla extract to bowl and beat to combine.
8.5 ounces all-purpose flour (1 ½ cups)
2 ounces cornstarch (⅓ cup)
Add flour and cornstarch, beating on low until dough forms into small, pebble-like balls.
Using your hands, press dough together to form a ball.
Chill
Wrap dough with parchment paper or wax paper and place in the refrigerator until chilled, about 45 minutes.
Shaping
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Remove dough from fridge and roll out into a sheet about 1/3-inch thick.
Cut dough into desired shapes using cookie or biscuit cutters. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Re-roll and cut any remaining dough.
Place cut cookie sheets with cut cookies in fridge and chill for 1 hour.
Baking
Preheat oven to 275°F.
Transfer cookie sheets from fridge to oven and bake until cookies are firm but tender and not at all brown, about 30 minutes.
Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling, about 30 minutes.