For the Love of Shortbread (and butter)
Anything that’s almost half butter has to taste good and is worth a weeknight rendezvous with a mixer and an oven.
Shortbread has a humble, Scottish background. It didn’t require much of its early medieval makers who simply added sugar to leftover bits of bread dough and left them over a dying fire overnight. They certainly didn’t have stand mixers, and you don’t need one either to make really good shortbread. It’s forgiving enough that it might even rekindle long lost affection for your oven. It’s baking for non-bakers (i.e. most people, including me), and you can make it in one bowl - with or without a mixer. You only need three things: butter, flour, and sugar. Nearly a third the mass of shortbread is butter anyway; so unless you’re lactose intolerant, it’s hard not to love. The butter also doubles as a carrier of other added flavors like lavender and citrus.
For the Love of Shortbread (Cookies)
The base recipe uses lemon, lavender, dates, and pistachios, but they can handle whatever your heart desires. They can be fruity and nutty or very chocolaty! Make them your own. Cook time: 12-15 min. Makes 18-24 cookies depending on how thick you cut them.
1 stick softened butter (room temperature)
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar plus 1-2 tbsp
1 tsp coarse sea salt
zest from one lemon
1 tsp lavender buds, smashed with fingers
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped pistachios
1/3 cup chopped dates
First we cream the butter and sugar and add the flavorings - lemon, lavender, and vanilla. Letting them rest in the butter for a while maximizes flavor. Then we add salt and flour to make a sandy dough, followed by mix-ins (dates and pistachios, here). The dough gets formed into a slab, frozen until firm, and then cut into cookies. Some of the brown sugar coats the exterior of the cookies to guarantee a nice crunchy edge. They bake at 350° F for 12-15 minutes. Download or print the full recipe for details. [ more … ]
Chopped dates and pistachios add texture and a little additional sweetness. They also complement the lavender and lemon zest in the dough.
Scottish culture favors shortbread around Christmas and New Year’s - but if you have a sweet tooth and a half-hour on a Tuesday afternoon, why wouldn’t you make shortbread cookies? I can think of a few reasons, but sometimes you (or someone you care about) deserve a really good cookie. Essentially three ingredients: butter, sugar, and flour; shortbread is crunchy, buttery, and only slightly sweet. For English and Scottish readers, we will say biscuits. Shortbread is a versatile powerhouse of a recipe and can handle almost any flavor profile or addition your heart desires including things like rosemary, black pepper, or a variety of dried fruits or chocolate. The recipe here features lavender, lemon zest, and chopped dates and pistachios.
Materials & Methods
Creaming Butter and Sugar
This step adds air to the butter with rapid beating for at least 2-3 minutes. Make sure the butter is fully softened, but not melted. We are essentially beating air bubbles into the butter, which makes a really tender, light cookie. Hard butter or melted butter just won’t work. The sugar crystals act as additional, microscopic tumblers, helping to add more air.
Baking Cold Dough
After the dough is formed, make sure its ice-cold and solid before it’s baked! Freezing the dough locks in the air we worked so hard to incorporate into the butter. It ensures that the butter melts slowly as the cookies bake in the oven instead of quickly melting out of them before they set and making a greasy cookie. It also makes cutting a much cleaner endeavor!
Coating the Cookies in Sugar
This recipe calls for an additional 1-2 tbsp of sugar to be sprinkled on the top and bottom of the dough. Sugar turns into caramel when it gets hot. It melts around 320° F and starts to brown around 340-350° F. It adds a ton of flavor and ensures a beautifully crispy edge on our shortbread cookies.
