Yesterday's post featured Frosted sugar cookies. Today we have Scotch shortbread cookies. While sugar cookies will hit your sweet spot, these shortbread cookies are deliciously light and simple. These two cookies complement each other well.
Scotch shortbread cookies surround pink frosted sugar cookies.
A plate of Scotch shortbread.
You may notice that my Scotch shortbread cookies show flecks of brown in them. That's because I used a combination of Golden White Flour, with the bran and germ included, plus a little of my home-ground soft wheat flour. Since my grinder doesn't grind as finely, you'll see the flecks of wheat in the cookies.
Recipe credit: My friend Linda gave me this recipe. Here she is at a Christmas tea, holding her favorite tea mug.
On to the recipe. It's really easy. Three ingredients. Can you handle that? I also double the below recipe, because you can never have enough cookies on hand and because they freeze so well.
Linda's Scotch Shortbread Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour (I use Golden White, which includes the bran and germ)
Cream butter and sugar. Stir in flour.
Here's the only "tricky" part. The recipe instructs you to chill several hours--it'll be hard as a rock, though. Chill an hour, two at the most. Or, chill until whenever, then pull it out of the fridge and let it sit for an hour or two, or until you can roll it out.
Roll the dough 1/4" to 1/2" thick on a floured surface. I floured very lightly, and it was just fine. Cut cookies out with a 1 3/4" cutter. I used a 1 1/2" heart-shaped cutter, which worked great. I think smaller cutters are better than the really big ones for this recipe.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. They don't really brown, unless you've severely overbaked them, so keep an eye on them. They should look set. I never know myself when to pull them out of the oven, but I haven't ever ruined them, so bake according to your oven's tendencies (I tend to have to bake slightly longer).
Cool slightly; remove from pan. Makes about 42 cookies.
Yeah, you know I took pictures. (I love picture books!)
I mixed the dough--a double batch, of course--in my Bosch Universal Mixer. Awesome machine.
I put the dough in a 4-cup glass measuring bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and chilled it.
Stacked by Danny (notice the perfect pattern) in a freezer container.
Not too sweet, but sweetly simple.
Back to life,
Christine
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Shortbreads are my favorite. I'll have to try this soon. :)
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