Ina Gartens Press Cookies

This shortbread cookie is excellent for making pressed or cut-out cookies. As usual, an Ina Garten recipe is guaranteed to come out looking and tasting great!

• 3/4 cup butter, unsalted and room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• tsp water if needed

1. Cream your butter, sugar, and vanilla extract together. You can use vanilla bean if you prefer.
2. Mix in the flour and salt together and combine with the butter mixture.
3. If too crumbly, add the 1 tsp water.
4. Pat into a disc, wrap, and chill for 30 minutes (tops).
5. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/2" thickness.
6. Cut out with your cookie cutters (type and size will determine yield)
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

FOR THUMBPRINTS: bake for 15 minutes, dollop in a small bit of jam into the middle after pressing the depression well, and return to oven for the remaining 10 minutes.

The drizzle or dip option

The drizzle will harden in 1 hour or so.

1 cup confection sugar

1-2 tsp water

1/4 vanilla bean

Whisk until smooth and drizzle over each cookie OR:

Make a triple batch and dip the cookies, decor side down, allowing the glaze to drip off and set on wax paper to dry.

You can make the flavors fancier by replacing the vanilla with a small amount of another extract, like almond or citrus.