So with all of the ingredients for our cocktail packed away to bring out to Long Island, I set about trying to find the perfect shortbread cookie recipe. I literally had to look no further than Instagram to find a recipe posted this morning! The recipe was for whipped shortbread cookies, which sounded delicious to me. And seeing as I had the forethought to take some butter out of the fridge before we left to run errands this morning, I was ready to go when I got home.
It also happened to be that today was the first snow in NYC. There's nothing that I love more than baking on a snowy day, with the warmth of the oven keeping the apartment toasty, and having cookies to sample warm out of the oven.
This dough is meant to be piped out onto the baking sheet with a piping tip and bag. You can use a variety of tips. Since I had the intent of serving these cookies on the side of our drink tonight, I used an Ateco 898 tip, which some people use to ice cakes. I used the ridged side up for a little detail. I think they came out adorable, and that they'd be perfect to rest on the top of the glass for a classy presentation!
P.S. I halved the recipe and I got over 5 dozen cookies
Whipped Shortbread Cookies
Recipe from SprinkleBakes
Makes 6 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (or you can substitute 2 tsp vanilla extract)
Optional decorations:
Assorted holiday sprinkles and candies
4 oz semisweet or dark chocolate, melted
Directions:
Combine butter and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
Mix on high speed until mixture turns pale, about 2 minutes.
Add flour to butter mixture in 3 additions, mixing well on medium speed after each addition.
When flour is incorporated, add salt and vanilla seeds.
Beat on high speed for 5 minutes -- the dough should be pale and thick.
Transfer dough to piping bags fitted with decorating tips. You can also used a small cookie scoop.
Line two or more cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Pipe or place mounds of cookie dough on prepared pans, spacing then a least 1 inch apart.
Add sprinkles, if using.
Transfer cookies on baking sheets to refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes or until cookies are firm to touch.
While the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 275F.
Bake cookies 30-35 minutes, or until cookies are lightly golden around the edges and still pale in the center. Since I piped my cookies thinner than the cookies on the original blog post, I started watching my cookies after 20 minutes. They ended up taking 21-22 minutes to achieve desired doneness.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Drizzle with chocolate if using.
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.
