Whipped Shortbread Earl Grey Cookies

   So, I'm baaaack! 
   After the musical was finished on June 13th (sigh....a happy and a sad one), we packed the family up and headed to a cottage for a week. That was a fantastic time of hanging out with my beautiful sister and her fam, relaxing, and eating my weight in s'mores......mmmmm..... 

   Last year I posted a recipe from Martha Stewart for Early Grey Tea Cookies. I love those cookies, I make them often, but what I love more than a regular shortbread style cookie is a whipped shortbread cookie. Whipped shortbread is so soft, buttery, and melt in your mouth tasty. 
   So, I decided to try my whipped shortbread recipe with the addition of earl grey tea, and the results were (not surprisingly) fantastic! 

Whipped Shortbread Earl Grey Cookies


Ingredients:

• 2 Cups butter (must be butter, no margarine allowed!), room temperature
  
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (from about 4 bags). I use my coffee grinder to do this job

• 1 Cup icing sugar

• 1/2 Cup cornstarch
  
• 3 Cups flour
  

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep a cookie sheet with parchment if needed (if you don't trust your pans)
   
2. Cream the butter really, really, really well on high speed!
   
3. Add the ground earl grey and vanilla and continue beating
   
4. Turn the mixer down, and add in small increments the icing sugar, cornstarch and flour. Trust me, use your lowest speed or else the icing sugar/cornstarch/flour poofs and chokes you in a cloud of white dust! 
   
5. Once all ingredients are added, continue beating the mixture. You are working towards a light and fluffy cookie dough, so give these cookies some good whippin' to live up to their name  :)
   
6. Scoop or roll out teaspoon sized balls, and place onto a cookie sheet once inch apart. 
7. Bake  for 7-9 minutes until the bottoms are just barely browned. Let cool 5 minutes, then take off of the cookie sheet, and move to wire rack to cool completely. 
   

   These cookies are a true cookie delight! They are light, but buttery, aromatic and delicious! For realz. For some other ideas for these whipped shortbread, look here at my whipped shortbread: three ways! 
    My blogging has been waining lately...whomp whomp. I'm hoping now that the show is finished I can try to put a little more time in here. We'll see though because this is the last week of school, then I'll be in summer-mode (read: lazy) and may be too busy with summer stuff! We shall see though, we shall see. Let's say it again: we shall see.