Cookies for Santa

Every year I tell myself that this year I will not bake too much, but the spirit of Christmas always seems to interfere with those plans, so here we are a few days to go, I have made these recipes for cookies you can make in an afternoon, with or without the kids! Enjoy

Whipped Swet and Salty Shortbread

Oven 300 degrees F

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup icing sugar
1 pound salted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon good vanilla

Measure the dry ingredients,whip them together with a whisk, set aside. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F, prepare sheet pans by lining each with parchment, this recipe makes 9 dozen. With a stand mixer, whip the butter until it is light and fluffy, pausing now and then to scrape down the sides of bowl, about 3-4 minutes, then add the vanilla, whip for a minute. With the mixer on the lowest setting, slowly add the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl, until all the flour mixture is incorporated, then speed the mixer up for a minute to whip the ingredients together. At this point, you can scrape the whole mixture onto a few pieces of plastic wrap, shaping it into a small cylinder, then refridgerate for about an hour, this makes it easy to slice the shortbread and prevents it from spreading too much. But, if you prefer,you can drop mixture from a teaspoon, immediately after mixing, onto the prepared pans. If you have tasted the shortbread dough, and wish to add a bit more salt, add a few coarse grains of salt on top of each cookie, bake the shortbread for about 18 minutes or until the cookies are golden on the bottom, rotate the baking pans periodically during the baking time for even browning.