-Your Daily Cookie-
© 06/25/08
By Dahni
Good day, here is your cookie for today. It’s really a cookie. OK, it’s a real cookie recipe.
Shortbread Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside. In another bowl with your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until the piece is about ¼ inch thick. Cut into round cookies or whatever shapes you desire using a lightly floured cookie cutter. Traditional is square with little holes with a fork or tooth pick as the picture above.
Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly brown. Cool on rack.
Shortbread with keep in an airtight container for about a week or frozen for several months.
Makes about 20 shortbread cookies
A little Short History of Shortbread
Scottish shortbread evolved from medieval biscuit bread, which was a twice-baked, enriched bread roll dusted with sugar and spices and hardened into a Rusk (soft, sweetened biscuit). Eventually butter was substituted for yeast, and shortbread was born. Since butter was such an important ingredient, the word “shortbread” derived from shortening. Shortbread may have been made as early as the 12th Century, however its invention is often attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th Century.
In the beginning shortbread was expensive and reserved as a luxury for special occasions like Christmas, Hogmanay (Scottish New Year’s Eve), and weddings. Through the years it developed into an everyday favorite and is now enjoyed all around the world. Traditional shortbread consisted of three main ingredients: flour, sugar and butter.
Shortbread is generally associated with and originated in Scotland, but due to its popularity it is also made in the remainder of the United Kingdom, and other countries like Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden. In the latter a popular recipe of it is called “Drömmar”, literally meaning “dreams” in English. The Scottish version is the best-known, and Walkers Shortbread Ltd is Scotland’s largest food exporter
Shortbread was chosen as the United Kingdom’s representative for Café Europe during the 2006 Austrian Presidency of the European Union.
Scottish chef John Quigley, of Glasgow’s Red Onion, describes shortbread as “the jewel in the crown” of Scottish baking
- In Shetland a decorated shortbread was traditionally broken over a bride’s head before she entered her new home.
- Shortbread was classified as a bread by bakers to avoid paying the tax placed on biscuits.
- The Scottish custom of eating shortbread on New Year’s Eve derives from an ancient pagan ritual of eating Yule Cakes
- January 6th of each year is National Shortbread Day.
Your cookie for this day, shortbread cookie recipe. Enjoy.
Baking cookies Just for You,
Dahni the cookie man
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