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| PREHEAT oven to 350° F. |
| Cream margarine, sugar, and eggs together. Then add each additional ingredient. Chill the dough for a minimum of 30 minutes. Roll out and cut in your favorite shapes. Sugar. Bake for 7-10 minutes. |
| If the dough won't roll well, chill it some more. If it still won't roll well, use more flour on the table, on your hands, and on the rolling pin. More flour is almost always the answer. Do not expect to do this tidily. |
| Some shapes are better than others for oatmeal sugar cookies. The oatmeal gives the dough texture, so you don't want anything with two many small, intricate cut-outs. On the other hand, moose shapes work quite well. Stars are okay, but stars are always dangerous. The points get crispy much faster than anything else on the sheet. If you're a crispy cookie person, that might be okay for you. I'm a chewy cookie person, myself, so I try to steer clear of stars. Why are they *forbidden*? Because one day, George was walking through the kitchen and stopped to eat yet another one and he said, "These cookies should be outlawed." He has trouble resisting them as do others. And -- it is important to note that they are always better the day after they are baked. They need to mellow. |
Shortbread
ReplyDeleteIn a bowl, whisk together 2 cups/130 grams all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup/40 grams rice flour (or ¼ cup/30 grams cornstarch, or use more all-purpose flour), 1/4 cup/50 grams granulated sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir in a cup of melted unsalted butter — if you’ve only got salted butter, reduce the salt to a pinch. Press the dough into the pan, and bake it until golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.
As soon as it comes out of the oven, shower the top with more sugar and be generous. Use a butter knife to cut the shortbread into bars in the pan while it’s still hot. If you don’t, the whole thing will crumble if you try to cut it later. (It’s still tasty, but very messy.)
You could flavor the shortbread with a teaspoon of grated citrus zest, or vanilla extract, or ground cardamom.
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ReplyDeleteNine variations for the master shortbread recipe above.
ReplyDelete1
Scottish Shortbread: Use 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup white rice flour.
2
Tender Shortbread: Substitute confectioners' sugar for the granulated sugar, and 1/3 cup cornstarch for 1/3 cup of flour.
3
Vanilla Bean Shortbread: Split a vanilla bean in half lengthwise and use the back of a knife to scrape out the pulp. Pulse the pulp into the flour-sugar mixture before adding butter. Or add up to 1 teaspoon vanilla extract with the butter.
4
Citrus Shortbread: Add 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon, lime or orange zest with the flour. Add up to 1 teaspoon orange blossom water with the butter if desired. These are classic with poppy seeds.
5
Nut Shortbread: Grind 1/2 cup toasted nuts in the food processor with the flour before combining with remaining ingredients.
6
Spice or Seed Shortbread: Add up to 1 teaspoon spices, like ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg or cardamom, or seeds like caraway or anise. Or add up to 3 tablespoons poppy or sesame seeds.
7
Brown or Maple Sugar Shortbread: Substitute 1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar or maple sugar for the granulated. This yields a slightly softer shortbread.
8
Cornmeal or Whole Wheat Shortbread: Substitute up to 1/2 cup cornmeal or whole wheat flour for 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour. Season with spices, seeds, citrus or rosemary if desired.
9
Buckwheat Shortbread: Substitute up to 1/3 cup buckwheat flour for 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour.
EASIER Shortbread
ReplyDeleteHeat oven to 325 degrees. Pulse together 2 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar and 3/4 tsp fine salt in a food processor. Add 2 sticks butter - 1 cup - butter and pulse to fine crumbs. Pulse a few more times until some of the crumbs start to come together, but don’t overprocess; the dough should be somewhat crumbly. (You can also mix the dough in a bowl using two knives or a pastry cutter.)
Press dough into an even layer in an ungreased 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan, or a 9-inch pie pan. Prick dough all over with a fork. Bake until golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes for the 9-inch square or pie pan, 45 to 50 minutes for the 8-inch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cut into squares, bars or wedges while still warm.