Cranberry Shortbread

Cranberry Shortbread is Christmas food!! But doesn't stop me from making them early in the year. Started off as a practice recipe in anticipation for Christmas gift giving for my colleagues in December. Ended up being my mom's favorite snack. Don't think she's too crazy about the shortbread, more of the fact that she can chew on the cranberries. "More cranberries!", she demanded. She finished my first batch all by herself. This is the second time I'm making them, think most of them will end up in her tummy as well, heh.

I like this recipe because it has no egg, so I need not make a big batch of them to meet the ratio. The tanginess of cranberry is pretty distinct, accompanied by buttery shortbread with a hint of vanilla. You can add orange zest if you like as well, to add onto that tangy flavor. Shortbread generally looks paler than cookies. If you like them to be browner, you can bake them slightly longer, but do bear in mind your shortbread may turn out drier and harder.

Cranberry Shortbread

Ingredients
115g all purpose flour
75g unsalted butter
35g white sugar
50g dried cranberries, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Cream butter and sugar
3. Add vanilla extract and mix well
4. Mix flour and salt in another bowl
5. Blend flour mixture into butter and sugar mixture to form a dough
6. Add the cranberries in and mix thoroughly
7. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for 1h (I skipped this, resulting in really soft dough that is hard to handle)
8. Roll out dough to desired thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out the dough
9. Bake for 8 - 10 mins and and transfer to wire rack to cool. Proffiiitttt!!!