Cranberry Pecan Shortbread Cookies

10 T. salted butter, room temperature

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 1/2 c. plain flour, shortbread isn't supposed to rise

1 c. dried cranberries, I used craisins

1/2 c. chopped pecans. optional

1/2 c. white chocolate chips/almond bark

Cream together butter and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and mix until combines and smooth. Slowly add flour and mix well. Scrape down bowl as needed. Fold in cranberries and pecans. Batter will be crumbly. Transfer dough to plastic wrap and shape into a round log. Put the dough in the freezer for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Take the dough out of the freezer and unwrap. Let the dough sit for 5-10 minutes if it is too hard to cut. Cut dough into 1/2" slices and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, rotate pan, and bake another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven when the bottom of the cookie starts to brown and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack. Once the cookies are cooled, heat the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl as directed on package. Dip the cookies in the melted chocolate or place the chocolate in a ziploc bag with one corner snipped off, to drizzle over cookies. Let cookies set up and enjoy. 

*The first time I tried making these was not a success. The shortbread tasted good, but when I tried to slice the rolled dough, after it had been frozen, they crumbled all to pieces! Guess that's the way the cookie crumbles! Anyway, since then, I've talked to other people who say they've had better success using butter flavored crisco instead of actual butter. So maybe I'll try that next  time. Another friend told me to bake it in a pan instead of slicing them so that way they won't crumble. Just slice them into bars as soon as they come out of the oven, before they harden.

**You can place the dipped or drizzled cookies in the refrigerator for faster set up time.