Sara’s Scotch Shortbread Cookies

This recipe came to me from my dear friend Senator Judith Zaffirini. The recipe was originally her sister Sara’s, hence the name. The Senator is quite the baker herself and has lots of great recipes you can check out on her Facebook page in the Notes section.

These delightful little cookies are light and perfect for a not too sweet treat. And no, sorry guys, no scotch is actually included in these cookies. This recipe yields a ton of cookies, I think supposedly around 100 but I may have accidentally made my cookies a little bigger and wound up somewhere around 60… Still a lot! I took these little morsels to my office and they were gobbled up in a flash. You can half the recipe if you’re baking for a smaller crowd.

You’ll need:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

Plus extra sugar and cinnamon for rolling

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

I must say this recipe was made possible by an extremely generous and kind gift from the Senator. A Kitchen Aid Mixer! Seriously, I shrieked with excitement when I received this! I feel like I’ve been promoted to new a level of baking or something. Thank you Senator Zaffirini!!

Ok, back to the recipe. You must sift the flour. I did not have a sifter, so I made due with a colander. Sift the flour before measuring then resift twice after measuring and adding the baking powder.

All nice and sifty and pretty. Measure out your sugar and set these aside.

Ok now for the fun part, creaming the butter! Which is 100 times more fun when you have a mixer!

Start mixing the butter.

Then gradually add in the sugar… It’s getting very creamy!

It might start getting all stuck to the mixer so use a spatula to scrap it down.

Move the mixer speed over to stir.

Now begin to add the flour. Add it in 2 or 3 portions allowing everything to mix in between.

You will wind up with a ball of dough like this.

Now, time to knead the dough on a lightly floured surface. The more flour you use the less tender the cookies will be.

Purdy little dough ball.

Roll the dough into small balls, appox 1/4 inch in diameter. I have small hands so use your best estimating skills here.

Place the dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and flatten them a little with your palm.

Flattened vs Non- Flattened.
After you flatten them all, bake for 18-20min or until a very delicate color. I would check on these after 15min because ovens vary and you don’t want to burn these little babies.