Shortbread Cookies for One

Sometimes, you just want something simple: a cookie in its essence. No fancy chocolate, no nuts, just a cookie. That’s what this cookie offers. Unless you add cardamom or cloves…or strawberries!

3 1/2 TBLSP all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon arrowroot or tapioca flour

1 TBLSP vegan butter

2 ½ teaspoons confectioner’s sugar

A dash of vanilla extract

½ teaspoon granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

1. In a small bowl, whisk the flour and arrowroot together. 
2. In another small bowl, beat the butter with a wooden spoon until it’s creamy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat it again.
3. Add half of the flour to the butter mixture, and mix it in. Once it’s well-combined, add the other half of the flour. Keep mixing until it’s smooth.
4. Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough until it’s ¾ of an inch thick. Cut it with cookie cutters and lay the cut cookies on the prepared cookie sheet. Reroll any scraps and make that into a cookie too! I get about 5 little cookies.  
5. Sprinkle the tops with granulated sugar.
6. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown.

Variations:

• Drizzle the baked cookies with melted chocolate.
• Add your favorite spice. I like cardamom, but try cloves, cinnamon, or ginger, too!
• Make a divot in the center of each cookie with the back of a spoon or your finger and place a dollop of your favorite jam in there. You know mine is fig, but try grape, plum, orange marmalade, or cherry. If you double the recipe, you can make one of each!
• Chop up some strawberries in the blender or food processor and swirl the resulting jam into the finished dough before rolling it and cutting it into shapes for strawberry shortbread cookies. You’ll need to increase the amount of flour by 1 TBLSP to make it dry enough to roll out, and this nearly doubles the resulting number of cookies. Is that a bad thing? (Shown below.)