Lemon Shortbread Bars...Buttery Good!

I got this recipe out of my Cooking Pleasures magazine. It is a dense and very good cookie. When I decided to make these, I realized that I was out of lemons but had an orange. Well, it's citrus, so I tried it. The result was excellent. The orange flavor is just so subtle. Now if you make the recipe and put it in a 15x10-inch rimmed baking sheet sprayed with PAM, you get a thinner bar. Bake them for 25 minutes or until golden. Drizzle with melted white chocolate and let stand until set. This was a suggestion in the magazine. Since I used orange flavor, I used melted milk chocolate. You might also dip these in chocolate, at an angle on one end would be pretty. I am thinking of adding this to the Christmas cookie platter, and use colored sanding sugar for the top on some of them.

Lemon Shortbread Bars
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened, cut up
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil; spray foil with cooking spray. Whisk flour, 1 cup of the sugar, lemon peel and salt in large bowl.
2. With pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Press dough into pan; sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and top is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
24 bars