Something to Munch On - Christmas Shortbread Cookies

T- 8 DAYS!

Anyone else in panic mode?   Has anyone else heard themselves mutter, “Where did I lose a week at?”  ME TOO! I did my last post on Sunday, baked some treats and then BAM! It is Friday, I mean SATURDAY, and a little over a week before Christmas.   Last week was gone in a blink of an eye. Wow.

 I have to be honest with you.  I bit off a lot last week project-wise and didn’t have one opportunity to work on a project, outside of Christmas.  Finally, I found some time tonight.  After the Holiday blizzard I will be able to be more consistent! Promise!

IN THE MEAN TIME, here are some Updates:

ABE  is more than half way finished! Hope to post him up either tomorrow or Monday! (That is iCheck it out!f there are no new surprises in the Lentz household.)

 THE BELL JAR is half way read – a synopsis of my thoughts shall be up here soon.

STOCKINGS! I bought the fabric  and have a design in my head.  Tonight I am going to cut out the stencil for the stockings. If time permits, then tonight I will also doodle my ideas for His and Hers stockings and hopefully put needle to fabric tomorrow right after The Gettysburg Address is completed!

LASTLY!

I did have some time to try a recipe I have been saving for over a year. 

I am a huge INA GARTEN lover and think her recipes are beautifully simplistic.  She creates fantastic food and does it with such a simplistic medium: powerful flavor through few ingredients!

I posted a step by step process to create my own shortbread cookies in the recipe section.  Instead of the normal lady fingers I changed the regular shortbread into CHRISTMAS SHORTBREAD COOKIES and made a few other changes to the recipe!



CHRISTMAS SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients:

·         3 sticks of Imperial Margarine (3/4 LB)

·         1 ¼ Cup Sugar (Save ¼ cup for sprinkling later on!)

·         1 ½  Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

·         3 ¼ Cups all purpose wheat flour (regular flour works great too!)

·         Heavy pinch of salt

·         ½ Cup Chopped Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F


Directions:

Place the butter and sugar in a mixer with the paddle attachment.

Mix on speed 2 until just combined. Go ahead and add the vanilla here.

Get your flour and salt ready in a separate bowl. I do not have a sifter yet, but if you do I suggest you sift this before the next step.

Add the flour to the butter mixture until they just start to hold hands and become friends.

Dump the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and roll into an oblong shape and aim for about 1/2 inch thickness. (I have discovered 3/4 to 1 inch is too dense and doesn't give you that snap.)  Wrap this up and let this chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Cut out your desired shapes and organize them accordingly.  Sprinkle that extra sugar on your lovelies before you bake them in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until they become lightly brown on the edges.

While your lovelies are baking in the oven grab those chocolate chips!
Microwave the chopped chips for 30 second increments and stir softly but vigorously in between until you get the texture you see above.  You want to either dip the cookies or have it be malleable enough to decorate on top of the cookie yourself.

Don't forget to let the cookies cool thoroughly before decorating!

These were my test batch so I didn't dwell too much on presentation.

With that said, this was my favorite one!

Cheers!