I realy love the taste of these cookies. there nice and buttery.

These were pretty good. However, my dad is a pastry chef and said that the amount of butter in them is way too much. The taste of butter was a little too pronounced. He said that as a general rule for shortbread, the amount of flour always has to be at least double to the amount of butter. Also, he said that the secret to get them to stay in one piece and not fall apart, is in the baking time. Make sure you bake them at least until the are a rich golden instead of white. My first batch was just golden on the bottom, and I was still able to manipulate well, but fell apart when biting into them, and they were a little chewy, or doughy in the mouth. My second batch, I let them get a little more color on them, and there texture was much better! Here you go, that is the secret (I think)of why many people had crumbly falling apart cookies! All credit goes to dad :) Perfect dough for piping beautiful shapes. Pretty good when adding a bit of almond extract too!

Taste is good, however, that is if you can get the cookie to your mouth before it breaks into sizes perfect for feeding ants. These crumble regardless of chilling dough, mixing in 3 parts, chilling on/off cookie sheet. My hubby things they taste like whipped flour. Sorry, but these just arent for us. I wanted to do cookies that my young daughters could decorate and this was a wasted day!

WOW!!! Easy, beautiful and delicious. I omitted the cherries because I didn't have any, but if i made for others I might put them or a single chocolate chip. PERFECT. SIMPLE COOKIE!

These cookies were amazing! my two year old loved them as well as my husband!

They really do melt in your mouth. So light and perfect as a "tea" cookie. I suspect they wouldn't hold up for many days, but we ate them all the first day, so short-keeping is only a theory. :-)

Mmmm! Instead of cherries, I placed a 1/2 teaspoon of Mamool (middle-eastern date cookie) filling in the center of these and then dusted them with powdered sugar. Sooo good!

I've never given a recipe a bad rating before and feel badly but ... while these tasted wonderful and they looked beautiful, they crumbled when you tried to pick them up. I told my children to pick them up like they were picking up broken glass then put the whole thing in your mouth at once!!! They completely dissolve in your mouth...no need to chew! Sorry to have to give a bad review but there's definately something missing in this recipe as I followed it to the letter.

I have to agree with the other reviewers about the "sandy" texture of these cookies. They taste pretty good, but their delicate texture makes them very difficult to eat. They almost dissolve in your mouth -- not a texture for everyone.

I have made several batches of these cookies. While they are awesome in taste, I have yet to mastered the technique to prevent them from breaking up while being moved from the cookie sheet onto the cooling rack. They crumble at the touch of the spatula. I am sure it is due to my lack of baking experience.

Just like I remember. My mom used to make these for Christmas each year. This recipe was easy and turned out wonderfully. I used salted butter and whipped for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients. Melt in your mouth yummy goodness! A huge hit with my family!

These came out beautifully. I substituted 4 oz. cream cheese for 1/2 of the butter, but otherwise followed the recipe. They were perfect.

wonderful recipe-my mom makes a variation of these as well, very yummy! I don't like the cherries, so we put crushed candy canes in the centre instead. makes them festive.

Excellent recipe and so easy. I will be making this every Christmas from now on.

I make these at Christmas every year. Works best when whipped with a stand mixer. All my family love these!

These are fantastic. When I make these for the holidays, I usually use the candied red and green cherries for the middle.

Well I had high hopes for these cookies! The instructions were super easy and the dough when mixed was so yummy and fluffy! I made them exactly as directed (using salted butter - might try unsalted next time) and when the one reviewer said they were "grainy" like sand I couldn't imagine how it would be after you whipped them for so long, but that's what happened to mine after cooking too! I omitted the cherry and once they were out of the oven I added a large round chocolate piece to the top without moving them off the baking sheet. The first batch came out so fragile that I couldn't even pick them up to eat one! They just fell apart like a cookie made of SAND. I am letting the second batch cool on the pan (which is going to make baking these take a long time!). That might be the ticket? I don't know what the magic touch is? Maybe I shouldn't have fluffed the flour before measuring it? I softened the butter a little and mixed it all together at the same time. No creaming butter first and adding sugar then flour - that might help a little. I did let them cool on the pan before lifting them off and that helped slightly. At least I could sorta pick them up even though once you bit into the cookie it crumbled apart. My 2yr old was VERY upset when her cookie fell on the ground and she didn't get a bite. :( They do taste good and they disolve in your mouth. I personally like a little more substance when I bite into a shortbread cookie and not have it fall apart.