Use salted butter -- it is the best way to get the salt into this dough.

Butter is the star of shortbread -- the higher quality the butter, the better your shortbread will taste!

You want to use cool to cold butter (not room temp) so this dough is best made with a mixer. You could always use a fork in a pinch -- it will just be an arm workout!

Use an empty paper towel roll to easily shape your dough log. Watch my video tutorial to learn how.

If you'd like to cut shapes out of the dough, roll the dough out after chilling, cut desired shapes and bake according to directions. If cookies spread during baking you will want to chill the cutout cookies before baking.

These cookies freeze fabulously -- baked or unbaked

• To freeze unbaked cookies: Form the dough into a log. You can freeze the entire log and slice off frozen dough as wanted and bake according to directions. Wrap the log well in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 6 months. You can also slice the chilled log into cookies and flash freeze the cookie slices. Take your sliced cookie dough and lay them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper. You can fit as many as you can on the cookie sheet -- you just don't want them to be touching. You will then put it in the freezer to flash freeze. They should be in the freezer about 15-20 minutes -- enough time to harden the dough so the cookies won't stick together. Transfer the cookies to a ziplock freezer bag. Alternatively you can store in an airtight container and line each layer of raw cookies with waxed paper. Continue flash freezing in batches until you've frozen all of your sliced dough. Label the bag or container with the date the dough was frozen. When you are ready to bake the sliced dough follow the instructions for baking the cookies. 

• To freeze baked cookies: After baking the cookies, allow them to cool. Store in plastic containers with airtight lids. Place cookies in a single layer to avoid breakage, placing wax paper or parchment paper between each layer. Label the container with the date. Cookies can be frozen for up to a year.