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Basic Shortbread Cookies

August 14, 2020 By Karl Leave a Comment

Today’s recipe is in recognition of Erik’s birthday!

Back when my wife and I had annual Christmas Eve parties, I used to make a ton of these cookies, and some friends mysteriously raved over them. They’re good, but not “Oh my god! These are the best cookies I’ve ever had” good. Just basically good. Maybe it was because of the food coloring I used. Who knows.

Anyway, the other day I dusted off the recipe and made a batch of regular and a batch of chocolate. They are good, but you’ll see that the recipe calls for cake flour, which makes them somewhat light and fluffy. I actually make these with regular flour, which, combined with making them a little thicker, makes for a more robust cookie.

You’ll notice that the regular batch I made are green. Whoops. I meant to make them blue, but when I added the blue food coloring to the recipe—you guessed it—the yellow egg yolks turned everything green.

To make the chocolate version, just substitute 0.5 cups cocoa power for 0.5 cups of the flour. To clarify, use 2 cups of flour and 0.5 cups cocoa powder for the chocolate version. For dipping, just heat up some chocolate—milk chocolate in this case—and dip them before letting them cool on a piece of wax paper.

If you like your cookies light, use the cake flour. If not, regular flour works great, too. Each batch makes about 50 cookies, depending on the size.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 0.5 cups granulated sugar
  • 2t vanilla extract, or whatever flavor works for you
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 2.5 cups cake flour or regular flour

What to do:

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Blend in the egg yolks.

Now, add the flour, and mix only until just combined. Don’t over-mix, or the cookies will be tough. If you want tough cookies, knead the dough.

At this point, while the dough is soft and pliable, roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper to about 0.25- to 0.5-inch thick. Refrigerate to set.

When the dough has set, heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Cut out the cookies with whatever cookie cutter you like, and place them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, about an inch apart—they shouldn’t spread. Cook for 10-12 minutes.

Let them cool a bit before removing them to a wire rack for further cooling.

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Filed Under: Baked goods, Dessert, Vegetarian

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