Baking is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  My mom used to always make delicious desserts, but I was never really a part of it.  It was a mom thing, not a family thing.  I first started baking after graduating college.  It was a way to give a few close friends some sort of Christmas gift.  But the Christmas Tradition really took shape about ten years ago when I moved out on my own.  I was an adult.  I wanted to show appreciation to my family.  So I started making cookies. 

When I got married, my family grew.  So I made more cookies.  And I made new friends, and the cookie list grew more. Now we are days away from our first child and I hope to one day bake with my daughter.  I want to teach her that love comes to you when you give of yourself.

Enough of that mushy stuff… let’s get cookie-ing!

Ingredients

Cookies

3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature (3 sticks)

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dusting

3 big spoons sugar

1 small spoon salt

Directions

Dough

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup sugar until combined
Add the vanilla

In a separate bowl, sift the flour and salt

Add the flour and salt to the butter sugar mixture and continue to mix until combined into a soft dough

Dump the dough onto a work surface and lightly roll it out into a disk. 
Cut the disk in half. Wrap each half in cellophane and put in the refrigerator.  Let dough chill for minimum 30 minutes, max 2 hours.  Any longer you will need to thaw them.

Making the cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper

Take out one disk and roll it out into ½ inch thickness.  The dough may be crumbly. That’s OK. 
Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies in 2  inch by 1 ½ inch shapes. 

Place the cookies on the cookie sheet

Mix 3 big spoons of sugar with 1 small spoon of salt for dusting.  Sprinkle the sugar/salt mixture over each cookie.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I usually do 23 minutes.  I have gone as little as 17 for a cake like dough and as much as 25 for a browned crunch cookie.  23 minutes is the sweet spot where you get a combo of both types of cookies

Take cookies out.  Set them on a cooling rack.  Cool for at least 10 minutes, but better overnight.

Store in a paper container or tin to maintain the correct crunch.  Do not store in an airtight container.  The moisture will make them soft and lose their snap

Note:  The basic recipe was originally adapted from Ina Garten’s shortbread cookie recipe.  I have included it for reference.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe-1945855