Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies

Heads up gang, I got a new favorite recipe!  And it has no chocolate, and only 3 basic ingredients that I'm sure you have. With a couple extras, that I'm also sure you have. Ok, that's cheating a bit. It's actually five ingredients. IT'S STILL GOOD.

I've never been a huge fan of shortbread, thinking it dry and character-less, but as I've grown older I've developed an appreciation for things that aren't chocolate. This shortbread is actually pretty good! It's actually pretty good!

You can do whatever you want to this recipe. Cut it with a cookie cutter, cut it with a plain old drinking glass, roll it into a rectangle and cut it into shortbread fingers...  That's what I did, I rolled it into a rectangle and cut it into fingers and drizzled it with caramel and it was fun times.

Make this. Put it in your mouth. And watch "Call the Midwife", it's such a lovely tv show.

Ingredients

2 cups (4 sticks) of butter (cold)
1 cup of brown sugar
4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1) Cut the cold butter into pats and drop them into your mixing bowl.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
3) Mix in the vanilla & salt, and then add in the flour.
4) Once it looks like the dough is mostly mixed through, dump it out onto a silpat or a sheet of wax paper and knead it all together. It will still be somewhat floury and dry, but don't overknead.  As soon as you think "hey, this looks like it's done", then it's done.
5) Put the dough back in the fridge for another hour or so.
6) After the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 300º.
7) Roll out & cut the dough, or simply scoop out balls, and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Trust me, with all this butter, you shouldn't need anything. Just make sure the cookies are about 1/2" thick when you put them in the oven, and poke them all over with a fork so they don't explode.
8) Bake at 300º for 25-30 minutes until they're firmly set and just starting to brown around the edges.
9) Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet, it's ok.

I made a caramel sauce using this caramel, microwaved for 10 seconds and mixed with a drizzle (about 1/2 teaspoon) of milk. Then I splattered the caramel over the shortbread. Caramel, chocolate, sprinkles... Go crazy. Or don't. Still good!