Who doesn't love cookies? I certainly do and felt there was a hole in my so-far meager list of baked items. Generally my favorite are classic chocolate chip, which I make periodically and freeze most of the dough in ready-to-go tablespoon sized balls. This surprisingly, at least the first time it was attempted, works perfectly and they can be baked from frozen or, if you're my wife, eaten straight from the freezer. But writing up how to make chocolate chip cookies seemed silly to do here so I looked for other options.
Whether it's Girl Scout cookies or Walker's, one of my wife's favorite cookies is shortbread. They're also not something I see people make very often so I thought it'd be a fun experiment. In a pleasant discovery the recipe (the one I followed) turned out to be incredibly simple, in fact it only includes four ingredients. Sometimes they're also called 'butter cookies' because, well, they use a lot of butter. And no eggs.
Ingredients:
2 cup - all purpose flour
1 cup - powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) - butter
Salt -> 1/4 tsp if using salted butter, 3/4 tsp if using unsalted butter
(picture only has 1 stick)
Other items:
Food processor
Mixing bowl
Baking sheets
Parchment paper
Rolling pin
Cookie cutter (or some other way to shape them as desired)
Quick version:
1. Soften butter if need be, cut into cubes
2. Put all four ingredients into food processor
3. Do 1 second pulses in processor until dough starts to climb wall
4. Dump on countertop and roll out with pin
5. Cut/shape/decorate as desired, place on baking sheet
6. Place shaped cookies in freezer for 15-20 minutes
7. Pull out of freezer, place on non-frozen baking sheet(s)
8. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes until just barely browning
9. Cool on rack
10. Eat!
I don't always have butter sitting out and don't usually plan ahead so, if necessary, microwave the sticks for a bit. 20 seconds for two should be ideal for softened but not melting butter. Cut them into cubes. Then put the three dry ingredients, after spooning and leveling into a bowl, and cut up butter in food processor. Pulse repeatedly one second at a time. Stop when the dough starts 'climbing the bowl.' My dough ended up clumpier than the pictures in the original recipe, probably because I pulsed a few too many times, but it turned out just fine. In the future I'll stop sooner.
Dump the slightly clumpy dough onto a clean counter. Ball it up and spread it out with a rolling pin. This time my dough was super sticky (over pulsing? butter too melty?) but I was able to accomplish the roll out after sprinkling extra flour over the dough to firm it up. Per the recipe you want the dough to be 1/4"-1/2" thick and I was probably on the lower end. Now shape the cookies in whatever style you choose (they'll bake in any shape). I used a 2.5" round biscuit cutter to cut plain circles. Because you don't want to overwork the dough I didn't roll the scraps over and over again to maximize the number of cookies. I got 17 on the first roll-out, 7 on the second and formed the remainder into one giant cookie. Place everything on cookie sheets, it doesn't matter how close together, and put them in the freezer for 15-20 minutes once satisfied with how they look. This could be a fun spot to experiment and decorate. This batch was pretty boring even after acquiescing to my toddler and applying some sprinkles.
You don't need to preheat the oven until now. Set it to 350. After time in the freezer the cookies should be firm and ready for baking. Transfer them to a baking sheet, ideally covered with parchment paper, that hasn't been in the freezer. Bake for ~15 minutes. It may be a minute or two more but our oven is always on the quick side. With the first batch I left them in about a minute longer and regretted it, with a few cookies getting overly done. The perfect place to stop is the tiniest bit of browning on the edges. Cool on a rack.
These cookies were super easy to make and this was definitely a success. They have a nice snap and taste comparable to the products (above) we've purchased, though in the end the style is still not a favorite of mine. Even so I'm happy to have attempted it and will likely do so again (and you should too!). Next time I'll try to make them thicker and do some nice rectangles like Walkers and maybe add actual decoration.
For today, smell ya later.
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