Shortbread Cookie

I have zero patient to wait for my red hot mixer to get here until I would bake again. I've decided to make shortbread tonight (also, it is perfect that I get to munch while reading a new book of my favorite author - Elizabeth Gilbert).

There are two recipes I'm contemplating. Tartine (the bakery that got me hooked on shortbread) dictates the following recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup superfine or granulated sugar for topping

Kitchen notes: If my butter hasn't softened in time, I put the cold butter into a saucepan and melt a portion of it. Then I mix the rest of the butter into the melted butter to get the very soft consistency I need. Just make sure that you don't let too much of the butter melt.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 6-by-10-inch glass baking dish.

Place the butter in a mixing bowl. The butter must be very soft-the consistency of mayonnaise or whipped cream. Add the salt to the butter and mix well with a wooden spoon or whisk so that it dissolves completely before you add the rest of the ingredients. Sift the flour and cornstarch together into a bowl. Add the granulated sugar to the butter and mix just until combined. Add the flour mixture and mix just until a smooth dough forms.

Pat the dough evenly into the prepared baking dish. The dough should be no more than 2/3 inch deep. Bake until the top and bottom are lightly browned, about 30 minutes. The middle of the shortbread should remain light. Let cool on a wire rack until warm to the touch.

Sprinkle the shortbread with the superfine or granulated sugar. Tilt the dish so that the sugar fully and evenly coats the surface and then tip out the excess sugar. With a very thin, sharp knife, cut the shortbread into rectangular fingers about 1/2 inch wide and 2 inches long. If the cookies have become cold they will not slice well, so they must still be warm to the touch at this point. Chill thoroughly before removing from the baking dish.

The first cookie is difficult to remove, but the rest should come out easily with the aid of a small, thin offset spatula. The cookies will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 2 weeks.

Heidi Swanson also has a version of her Hearts Castle Shortbread recipe. It is more or less the same without the heavy emphasis on the fluffiness of the butter. I'm leaning toward doing the Tartine way as I've tried and tasted and fallen in love with it.

As Maria Bartiromo said it today in her interview on campus, "I love what I do and that's why I am successful." A split heart of technology and food, I wonder if you have to love just one thing to be successful. :) See you in 5 hrs.

UPDATE:

• In case you wonder how to soften butter (as called for in this recipe), the popular consensus on the internet is to put the stick right out the refrigerator and microwave it for 14 secs. And as for Julia Child, she recommended rolling the butter between two sheets of wax paper with a rolling pin.
• As I was reading the recipe, I wasn't sure whether I should mix the wet and dry ingredients together using an electric mixer. I simply hand mixed.
  
• As for the dough, I used a rolling pin just to smooth it out and I cut it before baking it.
• And lastly, it's better if you cut it with cookie cutter before baking as the whole piece would be too fragile to cut through after baking.
  

UPDATE 2:

• It is oh-my-god GOOOOOD!!!