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Snowflake Shortbread Cookies

My roommate in grad school used to call me the Cookie Monster so… I might know a thing or two about addictive cookies.

I caution you. What I’m about to share with you is dangerous.

Dangerously good tasting and dangerously bad for your waistline.

Dangerous in that if you make them the day before you need to take them to school for your child’s birthday celebration, you’d best have them under lock and key because your husband will be caught red-handed eating your carefully calculated supply.

Truth.

These are some dangerous cookies.

I made these per the Princess Cupcake’s request for her school birthday celebration.  Since she is all things Frozen these days, I cut and decorated these to resemble snowflakes, but obviously you can modify them for whatever event or non-event you’d like.

shortbread snowflake cookies

Shortbread cookies

What you need:

  • 2 cups of butter softened (I use salted)
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 2 + teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour

What you do:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer with a dough hook on it.
  3. Add the vanilla and incorporate it completely.
  4. Add the flour one cup at a time.
  5. It will look like it’s not binding together and you need more liquid. Don’t worry.
  6. Turn the mixer off first and remove the bowl. Stick your hands in and work the dough until you can get it into a ball.
  7. Put the dough ball in the refrigerator for 30 or more minutes.
  8. Lightly flour your surface and rolling pin.
  9. Roll out the cookies – I like them thick. Mine are anywhere from 1/8 to ¼ inch thick or more.
  10. Cut with your cookie cutter. I bought the snowflake one at Cake Carousel in Richardson. If your cutout is delicate, you might have to use a spatula to transfer the cookie to the sheet.
  11. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper (or not) and bake for 10 minutes. They should just be turning golden on the edges. Remove and let cool for a minute, then transfer to your cooling racks.
  12. When they are completely cool, you can frost them with this equally dangerous frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

What you need:

  • ½ cup of Crisco
  • ½ cup of softened butter (I use salted)
  • 1+ teaspoon vanilla
  • My secret ingredient…. 1 teaspoon butter extract
  • 4 cups of powdered sugar sifted
  • 3+ tablespoons of milk

What you do:

  1. Cream together the Crisco and the butter. Let it go for a while until it’s totally smooth.
  2. Add in your vanilla. I’m heavy handed with it. Mix until completely incorporated.
  3. Add my secret ingredient. Mix well.
  4. If you’re coloring the icing, add your gel colors now. I used AmeriColors gel coloring in sky blue for these snowflake cookies.
  5. Add the powdered sugar in thirds and turn the mixer back on to the lowest setting. Speed up the mixer as the powder mixes in. If you do this too fast, you’ll have sugar dust over every wall and counter in your kitchen. (I’ve lived to tell)
  6. When it looks like it’s getting too dry, start adding your milk. Add 2 tablespoons and test it. Then add another. Keep adding a smidge at a time until you like the consistency. Keep in mind, the more milk you add, the fluffier your frosting. But it’s a fine line, you could add too much and it will break down on you. If you found that you’ve added too much milk, you can put more powdered sugar in to make it more smooth.

shortbread cookies

Snowflakes

If you want to make snowflake your cookies, here’s what you can do:

  1. Frost the cookies with the light blue. You should have plenty for the cookie recipe above and even some left over.
  2. Normally, I like to pipe the details with homemade buttercream in an icing bag but this time I decided to go the easy route. I bought the air pressured Betty Crocker frosting (the ones with the tips included) in white to make the snowflake lines. I immediately regretted it because the taste is meh, and you have so little control over the pressure so your lines will inevitably be uneven. But, it is what it is.
  3. After I drew the white lines for the snowflakes on the cookies, I sprinkled white sanding sugar on top for a little glisten, and put white Wilton edible pearl accents on the snowflake tips and center.

When the Princess Cupcake saw her cookies the next morning I asked her if they would be okay (I was still lamenting using the canned frosting) and she said, “They’re not okay. They’re GREAT! I LOVE them!”

There you have it, the most dangerous cookie you’ll ever eat.

Yield: 2 dozen

Snowflake Shortbread Cookies

shortbread snowflake cookies

Delicious shortbread cookie and frosting recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Additional Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of butter softened (I use salted)
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 2 + teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour

For the Buttercream Frosting

  • ½ cup of Crisco
  • ½ cup of softened butter (I use salted)
  • 1+ teaspoon vanilla
  • My secret ingredient…. 1 teaspoon butter extract
  • 4 cups of powdered sugar sifted
  • 3+ tablespoons of milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer with a dough hook on it.
  3. Add the vanilla and incorporate it completely.
  4. Add the flour one cup at a time.
  5. It will look like it’s not binding together and you need more liquid. Don’t worry.
  6. Turn the mixer off first and remove the bowl. Stick your hands in and work the dough until you can get it into a ball.
  7. Put the dough ball in the refrigerator for 30 or more minutes.
  8. Lightly flour your surface and rolling pin.
  9. Roll out the cookies – I like them thick. Mine are anywhere from 1/8 to ¼ inch thick or more.
  10. Cut with your cookie cutter. If your cutout is delicate, you might have to use a spatula to transfer the cookie to the sheet.
  11. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper (or not) and bake for 10 minutes. They should just be turning golden on the edges. Remove and let cool for a minute, then transfer to your cooling racks.
  12. When they are completely cool, you can frost them with this equally dangerous frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

  1. Cream together the Crisco and the butter. Let it go for a while until it’s totally smooth.
  2. Add in your vanilla. I’m heavy handed with it. Mix until completely incorporated.
  3. Add my secret ingredient. Mix well.
  4. If you’re coloring the icing, add your gel colors now. I used AmeriColors gel coloring in sky blue for these snowflake cookies.
  5. Add the powdered sugar in thirds and turn the mixer back on to the lowest setting. Speed up the mixer as the powder mixes in. If you do this too fast, you’ll have sugar dust over every wall and counter in your kitchen. (I’ve lived to tell)
  6. When it looks like it’s getting too dry, start adding your milk. Add 2 tablespoons and test it. Then add another. Keep adding a smidge at a time until you like the consistency. Keep in mind, the more milk you add, the fluffier your frosting. But it’s a fine line, you could add too much and it will break down on you. If you found that you’ve added too much milk, you can put more powdered sugar in to make it more smooth.

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shortbread cookies

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Thank you so much!!!! I will definitely be giving these a shot soon!!!!!

    Reply
    • Yummy. Send some to me. 🙂 Ours are all gone!

      Reply
  2. These look delicious! I’ll definitely have to try this with the littles. Any excuse to use the kitchen aid mixer! 😉

    Reply

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