ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped fine

Cream butter & sugar, then mix in water and vanilla.  Add the flour and chopped nuts.

Chill 4 hours in fridge.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  Watch them the last couple of minutes to make sure they don’t burn.

Take them out of the oven and drop them into a bowl of powdered sugar while they are still warm.  Set out to cool.

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We had a baking frenzy on Saturday to get the treat boxes ready to take with us to church on Sunday, and these were the favorite of those that we baked.  They take a little longer to bake than most of the others, but the extra time is worth it!  These are the cookies that Grandmas, Nanas and Babushkas all over used to bake, and they are soooooooo good.

I ended up rolling them slightly smaller so the dough would go further, and I actually like them that way – just enough for a taste, but not so much that you feel like you might overdo it if you eat two…

I tried these for the first time when my husband & I stayed at the Towerhouse Bed & Breakfast on San Juan Island a few years ago. The wonderful innkeepers were kind enough to send the recipe. They are more moist than most shortbread, but very tasty!

1 lb butter
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
1 tsp lemon & vanilla extract or to taste (orange & almond also work well)
4 cups all purpose flour

Beat butter, corn starch, powdered sugar and extract until they are fluffy. Gradually add flour until incorporated. It will be a loose, crumbly mixture.

Form into cookies approx. 1.5″ in diameter & press your thumb in the center.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until they just start to turn brown.

Makes approx. 4 dozen cookies.