Christmas Cookies! White Chocolate & Cranberry Shortbread

What gets you in the mood?

For Christmas that is…

Yesterday I would have paid someone for an injection of Christmas spirit. It is mid December & I was scrunching up my nose in disgust at Christmas cards, sighing with contempt at Christmas crowds, turning a deaf ear to Christmas carols. But today I have my Christmas shortbread, and a spring in my step.

It never feels like Christmas until I have made these & this year I also made some dark chocolate ones to keep things interesting.

White Chocolate & Cranberry Shortbread

Ingredients:

• 250g unsalted butter, softened & chopped
• 1 vanilla bean seeds scraped or 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 1/4 cups plain flour
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 1/3 cup chopped dried sweetened cranberries (approx, I have never actually bothered to measure)
• 1/3 cup chopped white chocolate (approx)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to slow (150°C). Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out seeds. Beat the butter, vanilla seeds and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
2. Add cranberries & chocolate.
3. Stir in the sifted flours and press mixture together to form a firm dough.
4. Lay out 2 long sheets of cling wrap & place the dough on top in a long thin log, roll into a sausage & tie off the ends & refrigerate for 20 mins (I did it overnight…obviously not with the oven preheating though)
5. Slice & place on a baking tray, leaving a little room for them to spread. Bake for 25minutes until very lightly golden.

* For dark choc variation add 1/3 cup dark chopped chocolate