Discovering 2014: Whipped Shortbread

 Discovering 2014 is a personal goal to complete a daily project throughout the year!

Today's project was Whipped Shortbread, using this recipe from Taste of Home. My suggestion, if you decide to use their recipe, is to drop the cornstarch ingredient because these come out with an overly powdery taste. They're okay, but they could be better. Next time we do these we'll probably try this recipe from Food.com instead.

The husband and I decided to halve the recipe since we really didn't want over 100 cookies. Even with halving it we still ended up with nearly 75 cookies.

Our modified ingredients were:

• 1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup of confectioners sugar, sifted
• 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of cornstarch (this is the part I'd suggest dropping)
• Sprinkles (maraschino cherries would be preferable here, but I used what I had!)

Pre-heat your oven to 300°F. Cream together the butter and confectioners sugar until they're light and fluffy. Slowly add in your flour (and if you're using it, the cornstarch, too). Continue mixing until it is fully blended.

Left to right: butter and sugar prior to mixing; fluffy butter/sugar mix; fully mixed dough

Roll the dough into 1" balls and place about 1" apart on ungreased baking sheets. We used our thumbs and the small spatula to partially flatten the balls, and left a small divet in the center for the sprinkles.

Next the shortbread goes into the 300°F oven for about 22-25 minutes. The bottoms should be very lightly browned, but don't overbake these. Let cool a few minutes on the pan before moving to your cooling rack. Should yield about 75 cookies, which you could even give out as gifts during the holidays!

Tomorrow's project are Cherry Clippies!