What is the trick to shortbread?

Tips To Make the Best Shortbread Cookies Choose High Quality Butter. No matter what brand of butter you buy, if it's real butter, you can rest assured that it's the best. ... Keep Ingredients Simple. ... Add Flavor. ... Don't Overwork. ... Shape Dough. ... Chill Before Baking. ... Bake Until Golden. ... Add Finishing Touches.

Why is my shortbread hard and chewy?

Check doneness by looking for an even, light brown colour across the top of the biscuits, with slight darkening at the edges. Begin checking at the tail end of the cooking time. Undercooked shortbread will be doughy and chewy. Slightly overcooked and it will become chalky, brittle and hard.

What are common mistakes when making shortbread?

The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour . The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.

Is it best to chill shortbread dough before baking?

Step 3: The Secret to the Absolute Best Shortbread After shaping the cookies, don't rush to the oven! Instead, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (overnight is OK, too). A short stay in the fridge will firm up the cookies and solidify the butter. This will help keep them from spreading too much.

What happens if you put too much butter in shortbread?

Greasy mess: Extra butter means more fat, making the dough greasy and difficult to handle . Spreading like crazy: Cookies lose their shape, spreading thin and flat instead of staying nice and round. Uneven baking: The excess fat can burn easily on the edges while leaving the center undercooked.

What happens if you don't chill shortbread dough?

But in this shortbread cookie recipe, it really makes a difference. Chilling the dough helps the cookies hold their shape. If you don't chill your shortbread dough, the cookies will spread as they bake .

Should butter be cold for shortbread?

Fine Cooking explains that the butter should be at refrigerator temperature. While many cookie recipes call for softened butter or at room temperature, if your butter isn't cold when making shortbread, it's likely to turn out greasy or be difficult to roll out.

What happens if you don't poke holes in shortbread?

Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here.

Should butter be cold or room temperature for shortbread?

If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent.

Is shortbread meant to be soft when it comes out of the oven?

If the shortbread has been properly mixed and kneaded and has risen after baking at the right temperature at the right time. It should be a nice golden colour but will be soft when removed from the oven so until it has cooled and hardened it cannot be judged.

Why do you put an egg in shortbread?

Adding hard-boiled egg yolks to a basic shortbread recipe makes cookies more tender with the perfect buttery-soft texture . The addition is a sure-fire way to improve the texture of your cookies, but perhaps not always worth the extra time and effort.

Pretzel Shortbread Cookies Recipe on Food52 (2024)

5 Ingredients or Fewer

by: molly yeh

April25,2021

4.4

7 Ratings

Pretzel Shortbread Cookies Recipe on Food52 (1)

Makes 18 to 20 cookies

Jump to Recipe

Author Notes

To make the pretzel flour, blend approximately 240 grams of pretzels (they can be gluten-free) in a food processor until you have a very fine "flour." —molly yeh

Test Kitchen-Approved

What You'll Need

Ingredients

1 cupunsalted butter, softened
²/₃ cupsugar
2 cupspretzel flour (see headnote)
chocolate, for drizzling (optional)
sprinkles, for decorating (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease 2 cupcake pans and set aside. (If you're just using 1 pan, you can keep the dough at room temperature while the first batch bakes and cools.)
Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the pretzel flour and beat until combined and the mixture forms large crumbs. Fill up the cupcake tins halfway and then press down firmly (it helps to use the back of a spoon or bottom of a glass). Bake for 20 minutes, until they start to brown. Important: Let them cool in the pan and then gently lift them out. You can use a sharp knife on the edges to loosen them from the pan.
If desired, drizzle with melted dark chocolate and decorate with sprinkles. Enjoy!

Tags:

Cookie
American
5 Ingredients or Fewer
Make Ahead
Dessert

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Liza Posas
kimrw10s
Alisa Loughlin
Teri Pallotta
etalerman

Recipe by: molly yeh

mynameisyeh.com

molly yeh recently moved from brooklyn to a farm outside of grand forks, north dakota, where her husband is a fifth generation farmer. she writes the blog my name is yeh.

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13 Reviews

Liza P. January 28, 2023

After two weeks of making these cookies, it's still on my mind. Based on reviews, I added an egg. I also made it with wheat flour and part white sugar and part brown sugar. I tried both the mini muffin and regular sized muffin tins. I prefer the latter. I plan to return to this recipe and play around with adding other ingredients- like peanut butter.

kimrw10s April 16, 2020

Made these exactly as described and they were delicious!! Having read the comments I may try the roll and cut method as well, next time. Also thinking will sprinkle mine with some flaky sea salt on the chocolate, just to up the ante a little with the saltiness. Amazing how good four ingredients work so well together!!! Thanks Molly!