Simple Shortbread Cookies

Simple Shortbread Cookies

This here is me itching my scratch for Lorna Doone shortbread cookies. I haven't had Lorna Doones in years, and something in me just refuses to buy cookies in the store. Other things, I'm fine with purchasing pre-made, but cookies I am not. 
I looked up copy-cat recipes and also the actual Nabisco Lorna Doone recipe, and this is what I came up with. They're not as thick as I remember Lorna Doones to be, and I think they are slightly less dense, but they are just what I was craving: crisp, buttery, well-browned, and only slightly sweet. 
These spread more than I'd anticipated, but the flavor makes up for their relative flatness. Maybe if I make them again I'll try something different to avoid the spread, but for now, I am satisfied. This recipe is definitely a keeper for me.

Simple Shortbread Cookies
     --adapted from Simple Family Finance

Ingredients:

• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 15 tablespoons, cold and cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream (if dough isn't coming together)
• about 2 tablespoons flour + 2 tablespoons sugar mixed together for dusting

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, place the flour, sugar, salt, and soda. Turn mixer on low to mix the dry ingredients. 
• Add the butter and  mix on low speed. Dough will look dry and sandy for a while. If it does not come together into a cohesive mass within about 1 minute, add the heavy cream and continue to mix on low. If dough does not come together but remains sandy looking, stop mixing and use your hands to squeeze the sand into a dough.
• Dust a clean work surface with half the sugar and flour mixture. Turn dough out onto work surface and flatten roughly into a rectangle shape. If it's really sandy, you may need to wrk to smoosh it into a dough as you roll it out. Sprinkle with more flour/sugar mixture. Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thickness, trying to maintain a rectangular shape as much as possible. 
• Cut with a pizza or fluted rotary cutter into about 1 1/2 inch square pieces. You'll have scraps left at the end
• Place on prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until browned on the edges.
• Allow to cool on baking sheet about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies

I cut them this size at first and decided they were too big.

The little scraps make tasty bite-size cookies.