COOKIES: This is the first of the postings for cookies, and to me, a very delicious treat.

COOKIES--SHORT BREAD:

 

 

 

1 cup all purpose flour                                               

 

½ cup rice flour

½ cup butter                                                                

¼ superfine sugar

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.

 

In a large bowl, use a hand-held electric beater to cream butter and sugar together and beat for 5 minutes until the mixture is very light-coloured and fluffy. Sift flour and rice flour together.  Add flour mixture, 1/3 cup at a time, into butter mixture, folding it in lightly but thoroughly.

 

Pat the dough into a circle, roughly 7 inches in diameter; then transfer it to baking sheet. Dust it with flour.

 

Roll a rolling pin over the round lightly until the dough is 1/3 inch thick. Correct the shape by putting an inverted 8-inch round cake pan over it and pushing in any visible dough outside the circle of the pan. Dip one side of a 12-inch ruler in flour and press it into the dough to mark 12 sections. Prick the sections decoratively with a fork and mark the edge of the circle with the edge of a fork dipped in flour. Sprinkle the top with 2 to 3 tbsp. of superfine sugar.

 

Bake shortbread for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly coloured. Take out from oven and cool. Cut shortbread into 12 wedges with a pastry wheel or a sharp knife along the marks made before baking. Transfer to a serving plate and put wedges back together into its original shape to serve.

 

Alternately, prick dough but do not mark dough into 12 segments before baking. But as soon as shortbread is out of the oven, prick it all over with a fork. Allow to cool in the baking pan. When cooled, cut into squares or strips ¾-inch wide and 2 ½ -inch long, and serve as individual cookies.