10 min preparation; 1 h waiting; 40 min cooking time

If you haven’t noticed by now, I love healthy food and lifestyle and I’m very conscious about what I cook and eat. Desserts though are a whole other story. Even if you eat healthy 90 percent of the time, there is always something you cannot resist. And I think that everyone deserves to please himself once in a while.

Well I love making desserts, no so much eating them. I love the smell of a baked cake in the oven. Or the smell of vanilla that spreads around your kitchen when you open the bottle. I love the look of the finished pie. All in all, I love everything about desserts (perhaps except the calories in them, but this is another story). They are a piece of art that asks skills and understanding about products and techniques.

Those shortbread cookies are one of my favorite ones. They are buttery and sweet, incredibly delicious and smell amazing! Since there are just a few ingredients in them, it’s all about the quality of the products. Good butter makes everything taste better.

Ingredients

• 160 g all-purpose flour
• 100 g butter
• 65 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp lemon essence (optional)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 60 g pistachio nuts, chopped
• 60 g dries cranberries

Preparation

Mix butter and sugar until smooth and silky texture. Add the vanilla and continue beating. You can use a hand mixer or food processor. I made the cookies by hand, using a big bowl and a wooden spoon.

Mix the flour and salt. Add the flour in parts. Whisk until fully incorporated in homogeneous texture. Add the chopped nuts and cranberries.

Transfer the mixture to a sheet of plastic foil. Roll the dough to a small cylinder and wrap it with the foil. Put the dough in the freezer for 30 min or in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C/325 degrees F.

Take the dough from the freezer. Cut circles with thickness of 0.5 cm. Place the cookies on a baking tray, covered with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 min. Let the cookies cool completely. Enjoy!