![]() Once you’ve rolled and cut your dough, transfer the unbaked cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and freeze before transferring to an air-tight container. You can freeze the cookie dough pre-rollout or proceed through the cutout phase. The freezer is your friend here and shortbread dough stored in an airtight container or double wrapped in plastic can last frozen for months. I'm also a purist when it comes to shortbread and skip the vanilla extract you might see in other recipes. I also like to use a fresh bag of all purpose flour when baking shortbread, some flours can pick up off smells and flavors when they’ve been sitting around too long. You don’t want the butter picking up refrigerator odors. Be sure your butter is good-quality, and recently purchased. The list of ingredients is incredibly short, so you want to make sure each one is on point. Shortbread magic happens when butter, sugar, flour, and salt come together. Hover near the oven, let your shortbread get toasty. Patience and attentiveness pays off here. It’s literally the difference between butter and brown butter. Shortbread that is allowed to get tip top super-golden and toasted where it touches the baking pan, with a wash of color over the rest of the cookie is so much better. A lot of the shortbread I’ve come across over the years is too pale, nearly white. Baking Time: I’ve provided guidance in the recipe for baking time, but in reality it’s all about having an eagle eye and good nose here.This allows for golden crust with crisp buttery edge and a tender center. I aim for somewhere in the 3/4-inch zone. I’ve found that rolling out the dough to 1/2-inch thickness is too thin, and a full-inch is too thick. Thickness: For classic shortbread cookies like these, I like to go thick.It is the ingredient that will bring the toasted butter, sugar, and flour into perfect focus. I’m not saying go wild on the salt front, but treat it like a pillar ingredient. Others call for salted butter which can be great, but it’s harder to control seasoning levels. A lot of shortbread cookie recipes are under salted, and that can leave them tasting flat and boring. Salt: Let’s start with this, it’s an easy one. ![]() ![]() I should say secrets, plural, because there are actually a few that will help bump your shortbread game from good to great. I've featured shortbread many different ways on the site over the years, but love circling back to this buttery, golden, classic shortbread version. Shortbread cookies can be the best cookie on any cookie tray (controversial take, I know!), and this post will walk you through how. I’ve developed some strong opinions on the shortbread front over the years, and I’m going to talk you through the difference between great shortbread cookies and the ones that are just so-so. They were the first cookie I remember putting in the oven myself, always for the holidays, always wearing a kid-sized apron. Shortbread cookies were my first baking love.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |