My Mommy & Fred and the Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Well what can I say about my Mommy and Fred??? Here is one of those posts where if I am not careful I will go on for pages and pages and probably still will not have said a lot of the things I would’ve wanted to. So in an effort to keep it short and sweet I am just going to list words that describe them (most of them will apply to both of them but let’s see if you can pick which ones are only one of them  ). Anyway, here we go… amazing, loving, helpful, caring, hairy, extraordinary, best friend, fun, genuine, smart, smart-ass, respectful, sports nut, wonderful parents, even better grandparents, hilarious, beautiful, and most importantly MINE!!! I am so lucky to have them both in my life and I am thankful for that every single day!!! I love them more than words could possibly describe!!! I hope these cookies can represent an incredibly small token of how much I love them and appreciate all that they have done for me!!!! So please enjoy the cookies, and enjoy your cruise (yeah they are going on a cruise Monday for their 20th Anniversary- sooooooooooooo jealous of, I mean excited for, them!!!)

Scottish Shortbread IV
By: Linda
"This is the most basic cookie recipe there is. Real butter and brown sugar give it an irresistible flavor."

Original Recipe Yield 4 dozen


Ingredients
2 cups butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Cream butter and brown sugar. Add 3 to 3 3/4 cups flour. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle board with the remaining flour. Knead for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.


Here are a couple of the suggestions I tried:
1. It suggested to soften the butter (not melt) before creaming with the sugar.
2. I cut the flour to 4 cups instead of the 4 ½ cups… many of the bakers suggested this one.
3. Instead of kneading or rolling the dough I just took golf-ball sized balls and placed them on an ungreased sheet. I then made a thumbprint in the middle of the cookie. (Yeah that suggestion was tried because it sounded a HELL of a lot easier haha!!!)
4. I also sprinkled some powdered sugar on top of the cookies right after they came out of the oven. I did this so it would melt right into the cookie and it would give it just a little bit of a sweeter taste (I mean when is sweeter ever a bad thing???)