Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookie dough is almost identical to the shortbread dough used for lining sweet tarts, except that even less liquid is used and the finished cookie is even more fragile. Sable means “sand,” and that is exactly the effect a shortbread cookie should produce when you bite into one—not grit, of course, but the feeling of the cookie instantly crumbling. The large proportion of butter to liquid keeps the gluten in the flour from being activated, and the mixture, once the flour is added,