Walnut Shortbread

For Day 4, I tried baking Shortbread from Joy of Baking Website. Fool-Proof Recipe i must say!!! i was so happy to see the Deep Dark Brown Shortbread Hot out of the Oven and was @ Cloud 9, when it melted in mouth, just the way it should!!!! The Ultimate joy came when My Kiddo tasted it and said "Marvellous Amma"!!!!! He has asked me to pack some for his friends tomorrow!!! I cannot ask for more!!!!

Sending these Tasty Delights to Kids Delight - Eggless or Vegan Bakes hosted by Priya, Event by Srivalli. And also to Show me your Hits, Happening @ Spicy Treats

Ingredients

1 Cup Walnuts toasted and coarsely chopped

2  Cups All Purpose Flour

1/4tsp salt

1 Cup Crisco vegetable Shortening + 2 tbsp Water (Substitute for 1 Cup Butter)

 2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a Baking tray with parchment paper.
• In a medium sized bowl place the flour and salt and whisk to combine.
• In a bowl, using your electric mixer, beat the Crisco and sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Beat in the Cinnamon Powder. 
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add the flour mixture, mixing only until incorporated.  Stir in the chopped Walnuts.
• Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least one hour). 
• Remove one half of the dough from the refrigerator and, Pinch Small balls out of it and shape them in-between your palms. 

• Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets and refrigerate for 10 minutes to firm up the cookie dough. Repeat the same with rest of the dough and refrigerate until use.
• Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes or until the shortbread's are a deep brown color. This ensures a crunchy and crumbly cookie. If you only bake the shortbread until they are light brown the shortbread will be softer in texture.
• Remove cookies from oven and cool on a wire rack.  

Note:

• Baking time differes form Oven to Oven. So Bake Accordingly
• The Original Recipe, said the dough can be rolled on to a floured surface and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutter, but i couldn't roll the dough ever after refrigerating for the required time. I m not sure why that happened, may be because of the shortening!!! i m not definite about that,so incase if you know the reason, do let me know
• Also the recipe said the baking time to be 13-15 minutes but that time, my cookies were light brown. so i baked another 7 minutes extra to get the deep dark brown. So adjust the bake time according to your Oven Power.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#13