Well this past week was Valentine’s Day and I baked some homemade shortbread cookies for my 5 year old daughter’s class. I know it is more common to make cut out cookies out of sugar dough or butter cookie dough but I love my shortbread dough. The shortbread tends to be far more delicate but the flavor makes it worth it.
In this case I flavored the dough with vanilla and caramel extracts. I also use powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar to support the tender flakey texture of the finished cookie.
I have a daughter who loves princesses and anything bejeweled so I made the cookies with as much shimmer as I could. Have a look…
The dough made and ready for a 30 minute rest:
The cookies cut with a 2 inch fluted heart cutter:
This next photo is of my 1 inch hearts covered in hot pink sanding sugar…
Stack the cooled cookies and “glue” together with white royal icing… paint on a design using red pink and white royal icing. Drag a toothpick down through the icing to make the heart design…
Here is a close up shot, my food photography needs some work but bear with me:
The little silver ball in the center is a silver 4mm dragee with white royal icing.
Here is the recipe for the Shortbread I love:2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp caramel extract
2 cups or all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Add both extracts. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix in the dry ingredients until completely blended. Take care not to overwork the dough at this point. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and press down into a disk. Rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
On a well floured surface roll out dough to about a ¼ inch thickness (I like even a little thicker) Cut with chosen cutter and bake for about 11 minutes. (Until set and only very slightly browned on the edge.
If sanding sugar is being used cover the cut cookies in the sugar before they are baked.
Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes then move to cooling rack. Decorate as you would like.
Enjoy. The yield changes depending on the size of the cookie.
24 cookies 2 inch cookies on average.
