In the shortbread part of the recipe it says to cream coconut oil, sugar and vanilla together. Extra Virgin coconut oil at room temp is solid, do...

Thanks for the answers, they are correct. Ideally, at room temperature the coconut oil is the same consistency as room temperature butter. But if your kitchen is slightly colder (or if you just got it home from the store, which is usually colder than home) the oil might be too hard, so you can use your hand for this step. The heat from your body will help to break up any solid clumps.

The instructions don't use the term "cream" for blending the sugar, coconut oil and vanilla for the shortbread; however, since it is specific about using the coconut oil at "room temperature", and the creaming process is done with a solid or semi-solid form of shortening with sugar, I would use it in the solid form. As noted by "hardlikearmour", one doesn't melt butter prior to creaming or blending it with sugar (as in making cookie dough).

I'd assume you cream it solid. When you cream butter and sugar together you don't melt the butter first, so I don't think you'd melt the coconut oil either.