Five-Ingredient Whipped Shortbread Cookies

I love shortbread type cookies, whether they are Girl Scouts’ Trefoil Shortbreads or Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread or whatever. I cannot keep these lures in my house or I have to eat them. But I had never made any, unless you call the similar but different Snowball Cookie or Wedding Cake cookie “shortbread.” After finding this recipe, I would say they are similar, but different.

But a recipe and photo for “Whipped Shortbread Cookies” popped up on my Facebook feed that one of my friends had saved. It had just FIVE ingredients. How many five ingredient cookies do you know? I’m on a search lately for simple, five or less ingredient recipes. This was from a woman named Courtney Luper so I saved it. I had no idea who she was but she had like a million + followers on her Facebook page so I said, who is this woman? I watched a couple of her videos; she has a touching story and is one of those high-school-dropout-evictions-to-sales-and-weight-loss success stories online that is actually pretty impressive and by all appearances, very real.*

I knew there were several occasions coming up where I needed or could use some new Christmas cookie recipes and besides, there’s always the blog to feed.

These cookies do truly melt in your mouth, but I have a few bones to pick with the process as she shared it, so I’ll tweak it with my suggestions.

If you have a cookie press, this is a great recipe for a super easy cookie. You can still make them just dropping them by teaspoon on a cookie sheet, but to fancy them up, the cookie press is a good thing. Maybe I’ll have to put that on my Christmas list, for next time.

As Courtney wrote, “These are great ones to add to the holiday cookie tins. So yummy!!!”

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (unsalted)
1/2 cup icing sugar (Confectioner/Powdered Sugar)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Beat butter until light & fluffy. Add icing sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt mixing completely.

Drop by teaspoonful or use a cookie press onto ungreased cookie sheet. Top with colored sugars, chopped pecans, cinnamon hearts, or other decorative parailel of your choosing.

Bake at 325 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes. (Don’t let them brown.)

Wah, my first attempt crumbled.

Mine would not even hang together after only 8-10 minutes. They crumbled. Wah. So I popped them back in the oven for 2-3 extra minutes at a time, until I likely baked them all together 14-16 minutes.

My oven is a little low in heat so I also upped the temperature to 335. I too did not want to burn them, but I wanted them to hang together! Makes about 3 dozen cookies by spoon method; they spread out while cooking. Would probably make 4-5 dozen smaller cookies with a cookie press. I had a makeshift frosting bag

that I tried to push several cookies through and the first several worked until I sprung a leak in the bag.

But, these cookies are very soft, rich, and melt in your mouth. Enjoy!

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What is your absolute favorite Christmas cookie? I’m collecting easy recipes if you have one to recommend! 

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My gift to you this Christmas, for you or a child or elderly person who wishes or is needing to learn to cook:

A FREE PDF (Portable Document Format) with 10 of the Easiest Recipes from my Whatever Happened to Dinner cookbook. Many of these recipes also have 5 ingredients or less. This came about (if you read my newspaper column you know the story) directly from my series of blogposts here I did with Lizzy the 12-year-old cook last summer, whose “can do” attitude inspired a 93-year-old man in Indiana to ask for help. He was wanting to learn to cook since his wife could no longer cook. So I pulled it together for him and others who need easy basic recipes. It has some food photos in it; feel free to download and print as many as you’d like to share with anyone who could use such a thing.

If you don’t have a printer, comment here, or email me at melodiemillerdavis @ gmail.com  and I will print you a copy and mail it to you for $2 for postage and copying. Enjoy!

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*Courtney Luper – is a distributor for a product called Skinny Fiber, which can help you if you have a tendency to eat way too many cookies like this! I’m not endorsing or recommending her product, just sayin’. My hat is off to her though for what she’s been able to accomplish, both diet-wise, and getting her financial life together, and with her online business! God bless!