i went to buffalo over the weekend for my oldest friend's wedding. she was kind enough to even include me in the actual wedding party. their marriage is sure to be a happy one, and happy tmes always leave me with an urge to bake. i was feeling quite lazy though but in a sort of challenging mood to create something sweet and tasty with minimal ingredients. after perusing one of favorite food sites, ms. smitten kitchen, i found a recipe for brown sugar shortbread-style cookies that only had 5 ingredients. score! the one semi high maintenance aspect was that the dough had to chill for an hour because these are slice and bake cookies. this was my first time with slice and bake, but i went in at full papa speed of course!
melt 1.5 sticks of unsalted butter.
let this cook down for a good 10 minutes, it's supposed to brown and becoem sort of nutty. i think i let mine only cook about 8 minutes because well i'm scared shitless of basically messing anything up, and i didn't want to a) burn the butter, b) make my mother's house stink, c) waste perfectly good butter, d) ruin cookies or e) all of the above. so anyway, when the butter started to brown i pulled it from the heat, but i probably should have left for another 2-3 mintues.
transfer butter to a bowl, and put it in the fridge for about 1 hour till it firms up. after an hour, remove from the fridge and add 1.5 cups of packed brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. once fluffy and sugar is fully incorporated, add 1.3 cups of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
mix to combine, dough should be pale and fluffy. and would have been more brownish if i had let myself relax and brown the damn butter longer! but i digress...
next form dough into a log on wax paper and chill for about 1 hour. the dough seemed a bit too flaky to me to actually form into a log, sort of like how pie dough is right before you roll it and you need to add 1-2 tablespoons of water. so that's exactly what i did and then the dough was much more friendly.
once dough has chilled for an hour, slice and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
bake at 350 for 10 minutes. then plate on one of your mother's many cute seasonal plates.
these seemed to be a hit at mom's house among the cookie contingent. next time, i'll try to get ahold of myself and let the butter brown to a real shade of brown. also, great with a steaming cup of tea.
melt 1.5 sticks of unsalted butter.
let this cook down for a good 10 minutes, it's supposed to brown and becoem sort of nutty. i think i let mine only cook about 8 minutes because well i'm scared shitless of basically messing anything up, and i didn't want to a) burn the butter, b) make my mother's house stink, c) waste perfectly good butter, d) ruin cookies or e) all of the above. so anyway, when the butter started to brown i pulled it from the heat, but i probably should have left for another 2-3 mintues.transfer butter to a bowl, and put it in the fridge for about 1 hour till it firms up. after an hour, remove from the fridge and add 1.5 cups of packed brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. once fluffy and sugar is fully incorporated, add 1.3 cups of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
mix to combine, dough should be pale and fluffy. and would have been more brownish if i had let myself relax and brown the damn butter longer! but i digress...
next form dough into a log on wax paper and chill for about 1 hour. the dough seemed a bit too flaky to me to actually form into a log, sort of like how pie dough is right before you roll it and you need to add 1-2 tablespoons of water. so that's exactly what i did and then the dough was much more friendly.once dough has chilled for an hour, slice and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
bake at 350 for 10 minutes. then plate on one of your mother's many cute seasonal plates.
these seemed to be a hit at mom's house among the cookie contingent. next time, i'll try to get ahold of myself and let the butter brown to a real shade of brown. also, great with a steaming cup of tea.
These cookies were delicious as evidenced by how quickly they disappeared!! And such a wonderful surprise for me to have when I got home from a busy day at work!!
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