Christmas Shortbread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Butter (not margarine)
• ½ cup Sugar
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose Flour
• ¼ tsp. Salt

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla.
• Mix flour and salt, then beat into butter mixture until thoroughly blended, to make a soft dough.
• Dust work surface with flour, pat dough into rectangle about ½ inch thick
• Cut into 1" bars.
• Use spatula to transfer bars to ungreased cookie sheet, 1" apart
• . Prick each bar with fork several times.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly colored.
• Be careful not to overbake. The bars should not brown.
• Let cool on cookie sheet for one minute, then transfer to wire racks.

• Nut Shortbread: add ¼ cup finely chopped toasted nuts to flour mixture
• Butterscotch Shortbread: add ¼ cup Butterscotch chips to flour mixture.
• Mint Shortbread: add ¼ cup mint chocolate chips to flour mixture
• Orange-Chocolate Chip Shortbread: add 1 tsp. grated orange rind and ¼ cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips to flour mixture.
• Lemon Shortbread: add 1 tsp. grated lemon rind to flour mixture.
• Fruit shortbread: add ¼ cup candied fruit to flour mixture