Have you ever used butter instead of Crisco? These look and sound wonderful but I'm wondering if butter would add even more flavor.

I'd suggest looking at some recipes for rugelach dough.

Although it might work by substituting half the amount of shortening for butter, you could run into problems. Butter has a lower melting point than shortening, plus a small amount of water content shortening doesn't have. Your cookies might spread out more before they set up, and end up flatter than you expect. Another option, if you want the taste of butter, might be to use ghee or clarified butter in place of some of the shortening. I just wouldn't substitute all of the shortening with butter. That could end up a flattened blob of cookie.

I suspect the answer is tenderness, but if you’d like, you could use a half cup of butter (one stick) and a half cup of Crisco. You may get the best of both worlds then. Good luck!