Shortbread Valentine’s Day Cookies

I love these shortbread sugar cookies. They are very rich and delicious and they taste like fancy cookies from a special bakery or a cookie bouquet. I make them every Christmas, and often for other special occasions, like Valentine’s Day.

Shortbread Cookies

(One batch makes about 3 dozen cookies)

Preheat the oven to 400

Butter – 2 cups
Flour – 4.5 cups
Confectioners Sugar – 1 cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon
Almond Extract – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon

Mix butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond in a large bowl. Combine salt and flour in a separate bowl. Gradually add the flour/salt to the other ingredients.

The dough is very thick. If you melted the butter (which I would definitely recommend), you might want to refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes so that it will be easier to roll and cut. I made three large balls with the dough before I put it in the fridge.

Roll the dough and cut out your shapes. Because there aren’t any eggs in the dough, the cookies will keep the exact shape after they are baked. These cookies are great for making interesting shapes.

Bake the cookies at 400 for 10-12 minutes. They barely change color and if they start to brown very much then you have cooked them too long.

Royal Icing

I always add royal icing to the tops of these cookies. This kind of icing hardens into a candy shell and adds a fun texture and look to the cookies. There is a way to make this icing with egg whites, but you can also use Meringue Powder (I get it at Michael’s), which is so much easier.

Confectioners Sugar – 2 cups
Warm Water – 3 to 6 tablespoons
Meringue Powder – 1.5 tablespoons
Vanilla Extract OR Almond Extract – 1/4 teaspoon

*Because this icing dries quickly, make sure that you always keep it covered*

Mix 2 cups of powdered sugar in a bowl with the meringue powder. Add the extract, then one tablespoon at a time, add warm water. Mix well as you add the water. Keep adding water until the icing is the consistency of a thick liquid. Even though you are using 2 cups of powdered sugar, you will end up with less than a cup of icing. This amount covers about 3 dozen cookies. I add food coloring to the icing for fun and sugar sprinkles to the icing before it dries.

{If you want to add the white icing lines across the cookies, you can just use a plastic ziplock bag. Put some icing in the corner of the bag. Cut a VERY small hole in the corner of the bag. Squeeze the icing onto the cookies.}