1. Before I started, all the ingredients were at room temperature.

2. Line a baking tray with butter/parchment paper.

3. Mix all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl, keep aside.

4. Cream the butter and sugar in another bowl, do this with a spatula, or use your fingers.

5. Add the toasted milk powder to the butter mixture in two batches, and mix well.

6. Next, add the flour mixture to this and start mixing the cookie dough by using your fingers. The dough might appear crumbly at this stage, but by pressing gently, you’ll be able to shape the dough as a log.

   

Make the Cookies

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C.

2. You can make the cookies immediately from the dough if you’re using a mould the way I did, or if using a cookie cutter, or if shaping them between your palms.

3. The other way of making the cookies is chilling the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour, cutting the log into ⅛” thick slices with a sharp knife, and arranging them in the prepared tray by giving a 1” gap between them.

4. Coming back to the mould or cookie cutter, these are two different tools for giving shape to the cookies.

   

5. I used a silicone mould for my cookies. I didn’t chill the dough for this step. I took some portion from the dough, put it in the mould, pressed it, and then released the cookie and arranged them in the pre-lined tray.

   

6. It’s a shortbread cookie dough, so the dough might appear crumbly during the shaping, but the cookies come out beautiful after baking. If using any regular cookie cutter, cut a small square (2.5” X 2.5”) from the baking paper sheet, place the cookie cutter over the paper, with one hand hold the cutter so that it stays on the paper, take some portion from the cookie dough and place it inside the cutter, shape through the inside edges of the cutter, and smooth the top with your fingers, the cookies shouldn’t be thicker than ⅛” by depth. Lift the cookie cutter gently. Then, lift the paper carefully and release the shaped cookie upside-down on the pre-lined tray.   

7. The simplest way of making the cookies is to take some portions from the dough, make walnut-sized balls, press them gently between your palms, and arrange them in the pre-lined tray.

8. Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookies start to appear brown in colour.

9. Due to the toasted milk powder in the cookies, they tend to get brown quickly. So, keep an eye and don't overbake them.

10. The cookies will be soft after baking, but they will be hardened after cooling, so don't worry about that. Let the cookies cool down for 4-5 minutes on the baking tray itself, and then shift them onto a cooling rack and leave there until they cool completely.

11. Store the cookies in an airtight container. Consume within 10-12 days.