Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into bits
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 8-inch
2. round cake pans with aluminum foil, pressing foil evenly into pan to fit well.
3. Grease foil.
4. In the large bowl of
5. an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy, about 2 to 3
6. minutes.
7. Whisk together flour,
8. cornstarch, salt, and five-spice powder. Add to the butter mixture in 2
9. batches, beating lightly with a wooden spoon. Dough will be rough, but pliable.
10. With lightly floured hands, gather dough into a ball. Cut it into 2 equal
11. pieces with a knife.
12. Again with lightly
13. floured hands, press each half of the dough into the prepared pans. Crimp edges
14. or press down gently with the tines of a fork. Using the point of a small,
15. sharp knife, score each pan of shortbread into 8 wedges (be careful not to cut
16. more than halfway through the dough), much as if you were marking a pie to be
17. cut later.
18. Bake for 18 to 20
19. minutes, or until shortbread is a uniform honey color, firm to the touch and
20. not brown around the edges.
21. Cool shortbread
22. completely in the pan. Score the shortbread again with a knife. Grasp foil on 2
23. sides and lift carefully to remove shortbread from pan. Break gently into
24. wedges.
25. Note: If you like your shortbread a little crunchier, bake for an additional 5 minutes.
27. Note: Traditional Chinese five-spice powder is a blend of star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and Szechuan peppercorns. (Some commercial blends vary from that formula.) It gives this shortbread an intriguing, anisey flavor. Five-spice is available in many supermarkets and wherever Chinese foodstuffs
28. are sold.