First order of business: Happy Birthday to my Best Best Friend Karla!

Sometimes when I’m in the mood to bake and I haven’t gone shopping for specific ingredients, I play the pantry game.  What can I make (that I would want to eat) with the items that I already have?  I’m usually short on anything perishable, but if I have butter, the answer is usually: shortbread.  And frankly, it’s hard to get better than shortbread.  Delicious.  Plus you can eat it with some tea and pretend to be British and sophisticated.

Classic Shortbread

Adapted from Ina on the Food Network

yeilds 20 cookies (depending on the size you choose)

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb unsalted butter (that’s 3 sticks)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Ina uses bitter-sweet)
• chopped nuts or sprinkles for decoration

Method

1. Cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer.  Add vanilla.
2. Sift in flour and salt.  Mix until dough starts to come together a little bit.
3. Turn the dough out onto the counter and form into disks to chill in the freezer.
4. Allow dough to chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350.
6. Roll dough out to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch think and use desired cookie cutters to cut shapes.
7. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  These are probably better a little on the blond side.
8. Allow cookies to cool.  Heat chocolate up in microwave for 30 seconds at a time.  Use a fork to stir chocolate and make it shiny.
9. Use fork to paint chocolate on desired portion of cooled shortbread cookies.  Dip chocolate portion into chopped nuts or sprinkles.  (During the holidays these look great with red and green bead sprinkles)
10. Stick them in the frige or freezer to help accelerate the cooling process.