Shortbread Cookies¶
Dough¶
Recipe first, commentary later. About 1 hour total.
Equipment¶
8” Brownie Pan
Parchment paper
Stand mixer (dough hook attachment)
Ingredients¶
250 g salted butter
125 g confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
\(\frac{1}{2}\) tsp. lemon extract[1]
\(\frac{1}{4}\) tsp. salt
250 g flour
Oven Temperature¶
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Step One¶
Put all the ingredients except the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached. Beat until thoroughly mixed.
Line Pan¶
While that’s mixing, butter the brownie pan and line it with parchment paper.
Add Flour¶
250 g flour
Use a rubber scraper to get the sugary butter off the sides of the bowl and add the flour. Beat until the flour is incorporated and you have dough that sticks to itself[2]. It’s important not to run the mixer for too long at this stage to keep from overworking the dough.
Spread Dough¶
Put the dough into the lined brownie pan and smooth it out. See below for tips on smoothing.
Dock[3] the dough with a fork in neat rows, or cool patterns. Or disorderly rows.
Bake¶
Stick it all in the oven, and keep it there 35 minutes. It should be light golden brown across the top, and darker on the edges.
Cut¶
After taking it out, let it cool for a few minutes, then cut into pieces while it’s still warm.
Commentary¶
I’ve tried a few shortbread recipes, and all the other ones have come out either too crumbly or just somehow off. I like this one because it’s easy and quick to make. The only time consuming part of this recipe is docking it, and it doesn’t take that much time.
Experiments with the paddle and whisk attachments on the mixer yielded fine results, but were messier and more work. The dough hook mixes everything well enough, and it’s the right tool for the last step.
These taste better when they’re a few days old. If you want to give people something fresh out of the oven, make cookie dough in advance and give them chocolate chip cookies instead.
Credit¶
This recipe is lifted almost verbatim from King Arthur’s shortbread recipe. The only reasons I bothered putting it on this site are that I adjusted the quantities a little for metric units, and used a stand mixer, and wanted to record exactly what I did.
Smoothing¶
The dough will be sticky, so pressing with your fingers might get very messy very fast. There are a few things I’ve found effective in getting the dough well distributed:
Cover the top with Saran wrap and…
push it around with your fingers.
smush another brownie pan that nests in the first one into it.
Roll it out with a small rolling pin.
Smush it around with the back of a large spoon.
The spoon and rolling pin don’t need the saran wrap, but it doesn’t hurt.