Rich, buttery, slightly sweet shortbread cookies are tender yet firm, and pair well with everything! Based on Ina Garten's recipe.
With an electric hand or stand mixer, beat softened butter and sugar until just combined - creamy and smooth, but NOT fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Scrape down the bowl.
Add flour and salt, and mix on low until the dough just clumps together. Scrape down the bowl to be sure there's no dry flour at bottom. The dough should be clumpy, not sticky or very messy.
Divide the dough in two and turn out onto waxed or parchment paper. Use the edges of the paper, or your hands, to smash the clumps together into a mass of dough. Pat it out some to make rolling easier.
Place another layer of parchment on top of the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it's about ½ inch thick. (I always measure this with a ruler, because too thick will not bake properly, and too thin will brown excessively.)
Wrap the dough in the paper, and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate.
After the 30 minutes, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Use a 2-inch cookie cutter to cut cookies. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet; they shouldn't spread much so you can place them an inch apart.
Squish the scraps of dough back together into a mass of dough. Roll the dough back out between two layers of parchment and cut out more shapes. Repeat until all the dough has been shaped.
Sprinkle the cookies with sugar (colored sugar is extra pretty here!). Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 10 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350F.
After 10 minutes of refrigerator time, bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 20-25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Check them a few minutes early if this is your first time making them, to be sure they don't brown excessively.
If you want to bake both sheets at once, place your oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Rotate your sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. However, I find that cookies still won't bake evenly when I do.
Cool on the baking sheet at room temperature. Store in an airtight container. They should stay good for at least 3-5 days.
I use unsalted butter because salted butter would add way too much salt to the cookies.
You can make these vegan by using vegan butter. I wouldn't use coconut oil as it would flavor them too strongly.
I weigh my flour. This is important for me to get the right amount of flour into the dough, particularly since I don't roll it on a floured surface. 470 grams is the weight of flour that I get if I measure 3 ½ cups flour (from Ina Garten's original recipe) with a ¼ cup measuring cup. Using too little flour will make the cookies spread.
I roll dough between layers of parchment a) to keep my counters clean, b) so I don't work extra flour into the dough, and c) because the paper makes it easy to transfer the dough to the refrigerator.
If your cookies are thicker than ½ inch, they will not cook thoroughly in the center. If they are thinner, they will brown excessively.
Chill time is important! The first 30 minutes lets the flour in the dough hydrate. The last 10 minutes chill time further resolidifies the butter, reducing spread.
This recipe will also make 24 3-inch cookies, as Ina Garten originally did in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. But 2-inch cookies are better for my household. Baking time is the same.
Calorie count calculated via MyNetDiary for 42 2-inch cookies, and is an estimate only.