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["1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.", "2. Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and combine it on medium low speed, until it looks creamy, and has lightened a bit in color.", "3. Then add the vanilla extract, and stir to fully incorporate.", "4. Stir salt into the flour. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 2-3 batches, stirring in between. Stir until well combined, and dough starts to come together. The dough will be very crumbly.", "5. Lay a large piece of plastic wrap onto a clean, flat surface. Dump the crumbly dough onto the plastic wrap.", "6. Fold the plastic wrap over the crumblies, and push them together. The heat of your hands will soften the butter a bit, and it will eventually come together as a mass of dough. Try to shape it into a rectangle if possible. Pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes or so.", "7. Unwrap the chilled dough, and roll it out evenly on a floured surface until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Now you could just take a knife and cut 1 inch by 3 inch rectangles, or you could have a little fun with it, and use cookie cutters.", "8. Put cut dough pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle some additional granulated sugar on them, if you like. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes, or until the edges are very lightly browned.", "9. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.", "Optional:", "1. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl : about 1-2 minutes on half power. Stir rapidly until melted chocolate is completely smooth.", "2. Dip (or spoon) chocolate on one end of the shortbread, and set on a wire rack until chocolate is completely set (about 30 minutes). Or, put melted chocolate in a zippered sandwich bag and seal it. Then cut a small tip off of a corner, and pipe chocolate designs onto the cookies.", "Makes about 24 1"" x 3"" rectangles, or 16-18 3"" x 4"" cutouts."]
