Simple Shortbread

Do you know what yummy dessert you can make with just these 4 ingredients?

Well, if you read the title...then yes, you already do.

It's shortbread!

Shortbread is such a delicious yet simple dessert! It's so easy to make I almost had my 5 year old do it for me.

Start off by preheating your oven to 300 degrees. Yep, just 300, that's it. This dessert cooks low and slow. 

(Often the best dishes are cooked that way!) 

Also, make sure you have a 10 inch spring form pan. It's so much easier to cut and serve this treat with one! (I guess you could use any old baking dish if you absolutely HAVE to...I still suggest going out and buying a spring form pan if you don't have one though!)

 Shortbread:

2 Cups Flour

3/4 Cups Confectioners Sugar (powdered sugar)

2 Sticks Softened Butter (room temp NOT melted!)

*plus a little extra butter for pan*

1 1/4 T. Coarse Salt

Start by sifting all of the dry ingredients together and set aside. Next, take your 2 sticks of butter that are room temp (they should be left out of the fridge for at least 20 minutes to ensure they are soft enough) and place them into a separate bowl and beat them! Beat them with a whisk until they are lighter in color and fluffy. 

They should look like this. It took me almost 10 minutes to get my butter to this point. If you wanted, you could always use an electric mixer...it would only take 3-5 minutes if you did.

Now. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the butter. I did this a cup at a time. Each time you add a cup, make sure it is well incorporated before adding another. Once you're finished, form your dough into a ball.

Like this guy.

Butter your springform pan with a pad of butter (that just means a tablespoon or two on your fingers or paper towel). Make sure to get all the nooks and cranny's. Press your dough ball into the pan and flatten it out using a piece of plastic wrap. Leave the plastic wrap on top of the shortbread and pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes to cool.

Then, take it out and cut it into slices with a paring knife. (I didn't cut all the way through the dough, just deep enough to make indentations that didn't fade while baking. About half way through.) You can also take a bamboo skewer and poke little holes through out the shortbread. This aid in cooking and also looks super cute!

(this is a picture after it baked, I forgot to take one before putting it into the oven, but I wanted you to know what I meant by poking holes in the shortbread)

It needs to cool for another 5-10 minutes before baking.

 Once it has cooled again put it into the preheated oven for an hour. 

(I took mine out just shy of an hour)

Make sure to let it cool until it has completely pulled away from the edges of the pan. 

(20 minutes or so)

The you can remove the edge of the spring form pan and re-cut the shortbread into slices!

Such a pretty dessert!!

You can serve it just like this OOOOR you can top it with Homemade Caramel and Toasted pecans!

 Check out my blog on Homemade Caramel Sauce and Oven Toasted Pecans for how to make this yummy dessert!!