Christmas Shortbread/Cookies - A fun way to celebrate with Kids!

I love making Christmas Shortbread, more so for the fun part than anything else. So whats the fun part in these? You probably may recall my story about 2 little guests of mine in the Gingersnap post. They were here again and this time, they partook not only the end result but also had a huge "hand" when it came to decorating these shortbreads. I cut them out into christmas'sy shapes and they had fun decorating them.



I have taken the basic shortbread recipe and added ground nuts to them to make it more yummy than they really are. Anything with butter, flour and sugar cannot go wrong at all and with addtion of almonds, it only took the flavor to new heights.These are good as they are, but if you want to have some fun, decorate them with icing sugar, colored sugar, edible silver balls etc. What more, if you have kids around, ask them to help.Its even more fun that way. Make sure you have more icing that time, since much of it will be inevitably "dissappear" or "dissolve in thin air" ;-)

Ingredients


• 1 cup butter at room temperature
  
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
  
• 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
  
  
• 1/4 cup ground almonds
  
  
• pinch of salt
  
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
  
• 1/2 cup icing sugar to decorate
  

Method

1. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until creamay and blended.



2. Sift the flour and salt together.



3.Now add the flour slowly to the sugar-butter mixture and blend lightly along with almond powder.



4.Take care not to overmix it. Bring it together to form a dough and referigerate for 15 min.



5.Then on a lightly floured surface, roll it out



and cut shapes of your choice.



6. Place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake them in a preheated 350 F oven for 15-20 min until they start browning slightly. They should almost be the same color as you started out with.



7.Cool them and decorate them with icing sugar. These can be packed in cellophane and tied with ribbons and given as a gift too :)



Simple, yummy and what more fun stuff to make with kids. What more christmas feeling does want than seeing the naughty yet excited faces of kids covered in icing :)

This my entry to No croutons required hosted by Holler @ Tinned Tomatoes ,

Eat Christmas Cookie event from Food Blogga,

Cookie Baking Event hosted by Sharmi