Delicate Shortbread Christmas Cookies

I’ve made shortbread with rice flour before, and this time I substituted half a cup of plain flour with cornflour to make the shortbread melt in your mouth (rather than have the crispy texture you get with rice flour). Use the best quality butter you can find because you can really taste it in shortbread. I also use a vanilla bean paste but you can use pure vanilla extract. Just don’t use anything labeled “imitation” – apart from being made in a lab, it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

These rich, tender cookies go perfectly with a nice hot cup of tea.

Ingredients makes about 40 stars

1. 250g unsalted butter at room temperature
2. 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
3. 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
4. 1/2 – 3/4 tsp salt (I think every sweet thing needs salt for balance, so it might be a bit heavy for some, adjust to your own taste)
5. 1 3/4 cups plain flour
6. 1/2 cup cornflour

Method

1. Cream the butter till light and creamy (about 1 minute)
2. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue beating for another 2 minutes
3. Stir flours into the butter/sugar mix until just combined
4. Put the dough onto a large piece of clingfilm, shaping into a rectangle as you go, wrap/cover and let rest in the fridge for an hour
5. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
6. Roll the delicate dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch and cut out whatever shapes you want. Dip the cutter into a bowl of flour before you cut each cookie to help you get the dough out of the cutter
7. Place on a baking paper-lined tray and decorate with any sugar or silver cachous you want
8. Bake for 10 minutes till lightly brown
9. Let cool for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely
10. You can decorate with any icing once cooled if you fancy