Preparation of Christmas Vanilla Shortbread

• Take a bowl and place the flour (preferably, sifted twice) and the COLD butter cut into small pieces in it, and quickly work them both (with your fingertips or a paddle whisk) until you get a crumbly mixture.

  

• Add the sugar and vanilla extract to the mixture obtained until the dough becomes smooth and homogeneous.
  Please DO NOT work the dough for more than 5 minutes max in total, otherwise, the cookies will harden.
  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 2 hours, in the refrigerator.

• Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured work surface (I use corn starch for dusting, instead of flour, because it doesn’t alter the recipe’s composition).
  Roll out the dough to at least 1/4 inch thick (the shortbread should be thick, otherwise they dry out during baking) cut out the cookies with a cookie cutter of your desired shape and decorate them to your taste.

  Once cold, pass them one by one in colored sprinkles and then press very lightly on the surface to adhere well.

• Place the cookies on a tray spaced apart (otherwise, during baking they spread a bit and join) on parchment paper sheets, which you will then bake directly, and let the cookies rest in the fridge for at least half an hour, in the meantime preheat the oven to 320°F, the chilling step after forming the shortbread is important, otherwise during baking, they spread and do not hold their original shape.

• Bake the cookies for 10 – 15 minutes maximum, no more because otherwise they harden, they should remain white, they should not color, if they still seem raw and crumbly to the touch, don’t worry, because once cooled they settle.

• After the indicated baking time, take the shortbread out of the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes on the tray before touching them, otherwise, you risk breaking them because they are very crumbly when hot. They keep well for several days, better if stored in a tin box.