Southern Shortbread Cookies

1/2 cup of softened butter
5 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
whole almonds


Cream butter and sugar.  Add flour, salt and vanilla.

Roll into small balls, then flatten by pressing an almond into the top.

Bake 20 minutes or till golden.

The recipe only made as many cookies as shown (plus the three for neighborhood children I used as taste-testers).  That's 14 cookies total.  BOO!  The recipe said it made 30 cookies, and as you can see, I made them small...not much bigger than the almond on top.

Also, since this dough had no liquid but the vanilla, they were very difficult to roll into balls.  In fact, I had to squeeze the dough into balls.

They were tasty, but I probably won't make these again.

This recipe was borrowed from Eat Dessert First! by Sue Ellen Cooper.