Lemon Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

Add the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest into a mixing bowl and beat together using a stand or hand mixer. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornmeal and salt then beat it into the butter mixture. Note that the mixture will be crumbly and you may need to work it into a dough ball with your hands but it will come together. If it’s a dry day and the dough still seems too crumbly, add a tablespoon of milk to help form it. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Roll the dough out on a sheet of parchment paper until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with your favorite cookie cutter but leave the cookie in place and simply peel the dough scraps away from the sides. You can keep the cookies pretty close together because this dough will not spread. Repeat and roll out the scraps on another sheet of parchment paper to make additional cookies.

Place the parchment paper with the cookie cutouts on it on a baking pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes. The cookie edges will only be barely browned and the cookie itself will still be soft. Remove from the oven and let cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes until the cookies harden a bit. Then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. I used a 2 1/2″ round cutter and got 18 cookies.