My perfect tea time snack or a cheeky breakfast is a plate of rich, buttery shortbread cookies that melt in the mouth.

This recipe of shortbread cookies will guarantee you reaching out for a handful of these! In fact, your entire house will be smelling of delicious home baked goodness once you pop these into the oven and it's often hard to wait for these to cool down. Have it with your tea or coffee or dip it in a caramel or chocolate sauce! This recipe was taken from one of my mother’s old recipe books and it is so easy, you’ll be making every week! Plus point – You can make this dough in bulk and store in the freezer to up to a month!

Prep Time: 1 Hour 15 mins

Makes: 18 Cookies

Ingredients:

½ Cup Sugar

1 Cup butter (Softened)

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

4 Tablespoons Cornstarch

3 tablespoons Sugar

Directions:

• Heat Oven to 350 F
• In a large bowl, combine your ½ cup sugar and butter and keep beating till the mixture is light and fluffy. You can tell when this is done when the mixture has almost doubled in size and has developed a paler colour.
• Sift your flour and corn flour into mixture slowly and stir to mix well.
• Divide the dough into 18 equal pieces and shape into small balls and then roll out on the 3 tablespoons of sugar to coat evenly.
• Place each ball of dough about 2 inches apart on “ungreased” baking paper and cool flatten the cookie. Traditionally, short bread cookies are made by pressing the dough into a carved mould for decorative purposes. However, you can always use a cookie stamp as well or just leave them plain like I do!
• Bake for about 9-12 mins until the bottoms of the shortbread are light golden brown.

I personally love eating these cookies plain with a cup of tea and if I really want to indulge then I top them with a bit of my home-made dulce de leche sauce! (Recipe of that delicious caramel sauce to follow soon!)