Easy (and adorable) Christmas shortbread cookies

I haven't had much experience with baking (other than box baking) in my 22 years of life, but I've always been creative and interested in making little masterpieces that I can eat. Working in an office environment gave me the perfect excuse to make something simple but special (and most importantly, edible) holiday gift for the people that I work with.

When looking for a recipe to try, I turn first to Pinterest. I'm always interested in trying new things in my tiny apartment kitchen. I remembered that I had pinned a recipe for lavender shortbread cookies a while back, and decided to look for a way to make the recipe a bit more Christmas-y.

Cranberries were the key!

I decided to add in some dried cranberries to make my batch a bit more festive.

Here are the ingredients I used to make about 20 cookies:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (I put mine in a glass bowl in the oven for a bit)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup finely chopped dried cranberries (basically craisins)

How I made them (without a standing mixer on hand):

In a large bowl, sift the flour and salt.
Cream melty butter and powdered sugar in a blender until light and fluffy. Then mix in vanilla.
Get in there with your hands and mix the creamed butter, sugar and vanilla together the flour mixture and dried cranberries until just incorporated.
Place dough on parchment paper and form an 8-in. log. Roll it in the parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, and up to a few days.

When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Slice chilled dough into 1/4-inch slices.
For an extra touch, roll or sprinkle in a course sanding sugar.
Bake for 13-15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool completely before serving, and enjoy with a glass of milk!

I actually made one batch of these cookies with cranberries, then realized that it wouldn't be enough for all my co-workers to get more than a taste, so I ended up making another batch of plain shortbread cookies that were just as delicious.

After letting my cookies cool, I packed them with parchment paper in little, recyclable boxes that I had accumulated from work. They were originally used to package little prizes that my office gives out, and I knew that I wanted to upcycle them. I tied the boxes up with adorable little twine, and my co-workers didn't even notice where they had come from until I told them!

Here are two similar recipes that I used to help me make these delicious shortbread cookies (I really can't wait to try the lavender ones!):

- Dried Cranberry Shortbread Cookies
- Lavender Shortbread Cookies