Shortbread- The Step by Step

Hi!

Shortbread is easy. I promise.

1. Get a bowl out. Not the bowl you attach to your mixer, a different one. No, not that big. No, not that small. Kind of medium. Perfect. That is the perfect bowl. Get some flour, put two cups into that bowl.

2. Put ¼ tsp. of salt into the bowl with the flour, whisk it together.

3. Put your softened butter into your mixer bowl. You can use a hand mixer too. Beat the butter until it is soft and creamy.

4. Put ½ cup of powdered sugar into the bowl. Mix that up good. Make sure it is smooth. Why powdered sugar? That’s a great question. One I had to google. Granulated sugar will make the cookies tough I guess. I am afraid I cannot tell you why. I have failed you.

5. Mix in the flour. Mix it until it is just blended. Don’t over mix this please. Here’s what we are avoiding here. We don’t want the gluten to build up. Remember when we talked about adding the flour and liquid in alternating stages and I explained it was all because of gluten. Well, note the lack of liquid in this recipe (the gluten in the flour lengthens when it is mixed with liquid). Over mixing will also cause the strands of gluten to lengthen. To get the shortbread texture we don’t want long gluten. No long gluten.  I had to do some of this with my hands because the flour just wasn’t incorporating. It also felt awesome. Like delicious playdough.

As an aside please note the lack of leavening agent here. No baking powder? No baking soda? What are we to do? Eat a dense and awesome shortbread is what you’re going to do. Remember that both of those products work by injecting air bubbles into the batter causing a lighter texture. We want dense and delicious. No air!

6. Flatten the dough into a disk. Wrap it in cling film (I think that’s the generic name for Saran Wrap) and pop it in the fridgerator. Cool it for about an hour. Just until it is nice and firm. It is hard to roll after it’s chilled but you can do it. I believe in you! Get the dough to about ¼ inch thick.

7. Let’s talk about shape baby. You can cut your shortbread with your favorite cookie cutter. You can put your shortbread in a tart pan. You can bake your shortbread in a circle and cut it into wedges (this is how Mary Queen of Scots ate hers). The possibilities are endless. I suggest using your favorite cookie cutter. Shortbread is great for cutters because it doesn’t spread which means your cookie will be the shape it was intended to be. So, do whatever moves you. I used a cookie cutter. A rectangle. Not my most creative effort. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper and plop those babies on there. You can put them pretty close because they don’t spread and expand.

8. NOW! Did you notice I haven’t told you to preheat your oven yet? You probably think I forgot. Well I am ashamed in your lack of faith. I want you to preheat it at this very moment. Unless you are just reading this and not baking. Then there is no point in you preheating your oven. I want you to preheat your oven to 350. Then I want you to stick your shortbread masterpieces into the fridge again. Why? You ask. I am going to ask you to think back to my last blog post when I told you if your cookies are flat your batter might be too hot. Cool shortbread cookies will spread less in the oven.

9. After 15 minutes pop them into the oven for 8-10 minutes. The bottoms should be slightly brown. The tops will be almost white. Like shortbread should be.

10. Let them cool and enjoy!