Shortbread is great for cookies or as a crust. I recently made bite sized tarts from this recipe. You may have the ingredients already in your pantry!

1 cup of butter, cut into small cubes

½ cup confectioners sugar

2 cups of flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

⅛ teaspoon salt (or use salted butter)

¼ teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon Lemon zest (optional)  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and confectioners sugar together until the mixture is fluffy looking. Add and mix in salt (unless you used salted butter), vanilla, and lemon zest.
3. Combine the flour and baking soda in a separate container. Slowly add this mixture to the butter/sugar bowl, mixing completely until a dough forms.
4. Bake: This dough can easily be pressed into a greased pan, or rolled out with a rolling pin and cut into cookies. You can also roll the dough into a log to make sliceable cookies – a great option if you don’t want to bake a few cookies at a time while keeping the rest in the fridge. These will change cooking times slightly, so keep an eye on the oven! I recommend baking for 10 minutes, then checking on the shortbread every two minutes until the edges are golden brown.

This is a great as a cookie on it’s own or to complement tea, pudding, and fresh berries with whipped cream. As a pie crust, I recommend pre-baking before filling (at least for several minutes, if not all the way) – if it’s a filling that needs to be baked, cover the edges of your crust with aluminum foil to protect it from burning during it’s second time in the oven.