Ingredients:
§ 1 1/2 cups walnuts
§ 1/8 teaspoon table salt
§ 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
§ 1 tablespoon vanilla
§ 1/2 cup sugar
§ 2 cups all-purpose flour
§ 1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for serving
Directions:
In a food processor, finely grind 1/2 cup walnuts and salt. Roughly chop the remaining 1 cup of walnuts
and set aside.
In a bowl, beat softened butter and salt for 2 – 3 minutes until
smooth.
Add the sugar and vanilla and
beat for 2 minutes until light and fluffy scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add flour and mix just until combined well. Add ground and chopped walnuts.
Divide the dough into thirds.
Wrap lightly in plastic wrap and roll each
piece to form a log approximately 1" in diameter for smaller cookies or 1 1/2" for larger cookies.
Wrap the logs tightly in plastic wrap and
chill until cold, about 30 minutes or overnight.
To bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350
degrees. Remove the cookie logs from the
refrigerator and cut into 1/2" discs.
Place the discs onto a baking pan lined with a Silpat or parchment
paper.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes
or until golden brown on the bottom and just pale golden on top.
Put powdered sugar into a bowl. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking
sheet. Toss the warm cookies in the
powdered sugar. Transfer the
sugar-coated cookies to a rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, store them in an airtight
container.
Before serving, sift
additional powdered sugar over cookies. For a printer friendly copy of this
recipe, go to Walnut Shortbread Cookies. Enjoy!
