fun activity

One of my Young Women at church came up with a really fun idea for an activity and I had to share. We made pizza box cookies. I baked 12 pizza sized shortbread cookies, and we went to town with decorating them. We wrapped the pizza boxes with Valentine-y wrapping paper (I wrapped the inside), and gave them to people we love. I made mine for Blake.
Those are the remains from a few big bites we took last night:)

Pizza sized shortbread cookies
makes four 9" cookies

ingredients:
4 cups flour
1-1/2 C butter (3 sticks), softened
1-1/3 C granulated sugar, plus some for sprinkling on top
1 t vanilla extract, optional

materials:
2~4 (9") cake pans
glass tumbler with flat bottom
kitchenaid stand mixer

1. Preheat oven to 350° with rack in middle position.
2. In the bowl of the kitchenaid stand mixer with the paddle attachment affixed, beat butter and sugar until properly creamed, scraping down the sides periodically. Add vanilla extract and incorporate.
3. One C at a time, add the first 3 C of flour until well mixed.
4. Switch to the dough hook attachment and add the last C of flour. Scrape down the sides and bottom often, and continue to mix until mostly mixed.
5. Using your hands, kneed the dough either in the bowl or on a very lightly floured surface until most flour-ey lumps are gone. This will be a fairly crumbly dough. Make the dough into one big ball and with a sharp knife, cut into 4 equal pieces.
6. Take one quarter of the dough and place it into a cake pan. Press with our fingers until you have a fairly even layer on the bottom of the pan, touching all sides. With the glass tumbler, roll out or press down the dough with the bottom of the tumbler to make the layer more even. Cover the top evenly with 2 t of sugar. Do the same with the second cake pan, and place them both in the oven.
7. Bake for 35~45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and even. (If you only have 2 cake pans, do the second batch once the first batch is completely cooled) Once cooled, using your whole hand, put a little pressure on the cookie, twist it to loosen it from the pan, and flip upside down. It should come out easily.

This cookie can be enjoyed without frosting because it's very sweet on it's own. But feel free to frost it:) If you want them to be traditional shortbread cookies, score the dough into 8 wedges before baking and once cooled, break them along the scoring.