Girl Scout Cookies® Shortbread

Since they only sell these once a year, right around springtime, you're bound to get a craving sometime around fall.  And if you're still holding onto a box, they may have begun to taste a bit like used air-hockey pucks. Now you can toss out those relics and fill the box with a fresh batch, made from this clone recipe for the first variety of cookies sold by the Girl Scouts back in 1917.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons beaten egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus an extra 1/4 cup reserved for rolling)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder

PROCEDURE:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening, sugar, vanilla, and salt with an electric mixer.
2. Add the egg and beat mixture until it's fluffy. Add the baking soda and mix for about 20 seconds, then add the buttermilk and mix for an additional 30 seconds.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
4. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well with an electric mixer until flour is incorporated.
5. Roll the dough into a ball, cover it with plastic wrap, and chill it for 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
7. Roll dough out on a well-floured surface to 1/8-inch thick and punch out cookies with a 1 1/2 to 2-inch cutter (a medium-size spice bottle lid works well). Arrange cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes 60 cookies.