Whipped Shortbread

Yesterday I started off my Holiday baking/treat making! I made an ambitious statement of posting lots of recipes, and I even said maybe try one a day! I am not quite sure about the one a day recipe. I am thinking I will try at least Monday to Friday! 

When I told my husband this goal all he said was "That is an awful lot of food". I laughed a little and let him know that most of the things I will be making will not be consumed by us entirely, and that they were my yearly treat making for friends!

Today's recipe is a family classic that my Mom would make every year for us. These whipped shortbread cookies are a melt in your mouth cookie, they should be that way seeing as there is a whole pound of butter in them. Mmmm butter, I just love butter and I miss the old Paula Dean who would say to throw another stick of butter in things. 

This recipe is super easy, you won't be able to believe how fast you can make these. Mixing, baking and cooling all in 20 minutes!

Whipped Shortbread

Ingredients:

1 pound of salted butter, softened
3 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of corn starch
1 cup of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
glazed cherries
red and green pearl sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a stand mixer, cream your butter for 3 minutes. 

Add the rest of the ingredients, minus the cherries and sprinkles, on a slow/low speed mix the ingredients together. Once the flour is mostly incorporated, then turn up the speed and whip it together for 2 minutes until creamy and a solid dough verses clumps. 

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Withe a cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and space them about 1 1/2 inches apart. The dough doesn't spread as much as other dough's.

With a fork lightly press the tongs into the dough to make markings. Sprinkle with the pearl sprinkles or place a whole glazed cherry on top.

Bake in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes, or until they are barley cooked. They will still be pale in colour, you do not want them to turn golden in colour.

Remove from the oven and cool completely before serving or packaging. They can be stored in an airtight container and then frozen until needed. just remove from the freezer early in the day you need them. 

Whipped Shortbread 

I have a few things I want to stress the importance of. First salted butter I find is key for a lot of baking, you don't have to add extra salt and the salt cuts the sweetness back. Second, trust me about not over baking these cookies, you want them to be barley cooked through. That is what helps create the melting aspect of the shortbread. Third and not last you might have to double the batch because these have a tendency to disappear...

Happy Baking everyone! Make sure to check out my Instagram feed on the side of this post and follow along!
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Update:

​Some exciting news, this recipe/picture was shared on CBC's website in an article from the Great Canadian Baking Show "10 Holiday treats from fans of the Great Canadian Baking Show" I am just so delighted and excited to see that on there! 

ADDITIONAL UPDATE:

This recipe has taken off again! CBC had a Holiday Baking Show down and these beat out 15 other holiday treats and became the victor! Check out the article here 
I am pretty excited for that, although I found out from my husband who randomly found it on CBC's website.