Baking Shortbread Cookies

Posted at January 22, 2010

Today while I was at the library, I picked up a cookies cook book, and was skimming through it. I came across a recipe for shortbread cookies. I had never made it before and thought, I have all the ingredients, I can make this….

So I borrowed the book, and tonight after dinner, I made chocolate chip shortbread cookies. Kyle warned me, you have to follow the recipe to the T as shortbread baking is very sensitive. So I started it, it said cream the butter and since I always make oatmeal cookies, I just melted the butter and mixed it with the sugar. Then I realized you are supposed to have the butter soft not liquid, so I stick it back in the fridge and hoped it would harden properly. An hour later, butter looked good so I continue with the creaming and adding the ingredients. Oops, I was short about 1/8 of a cup of corn starch. I figured, it’d be ok, 7/8 cup instead of a whole cup should be ok. So I followed the rest of the rest of the recipe and baked it at 325F for 30 minutes. When they came out of the oven they felt soft to the touch, I didn’t remember shortbread cookies being soft, ah… it will be different when it cools. I called my mother-in-law just to check though. OK she had a different type of recipe so the results are a little different. One thing is they don’t spread, it is basically the shape you put them on the tray! Mine are a little squarish!

2 hours later, I am thinking, I should taste my cookies. Hey they are not too bad. I chatted with a friend later and she also mentioned that she had heard that shortbread cookies are hard to make. Well, I am glad I didn’t tell anyone I was making them, their opinions might have deterred me. Ignorance is bliss!

I have officially made Shortbread cookies, it was fun.

shortbread cookies

Here is the recipe :.

Basic Shortbread Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup cornflour (cornstarch)

Preheat oven to 170C/325F

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Sift the flour and cornflour on to the butter mixture and mix until you have a lovely smooth dough. At this stage you can either press it into a square tin, which you have lightly greased , and bake straight away or form it into a fat sausage and wrap it in cling film. Make the sausage as fat as you want eh biscuit to be round and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Unwrap the dough and slice into rounds about 1.5cm / 5/8 inch thick. Place th rounds on a silicone-lined baking tray and bake for about 30-40 minutes until pale and golden. Transfer the shortbread to a wire tray to cool.

If you are using a tin, cut the shortbread in the tin while it is still warm and leave to cool in the tin.

For Chocolate Chip Shortbread -1/4 cup chunky chocolate chips, Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the dough and knead in with your hands until the chocolate is evenly distributed before rolling into a sausage.