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Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract, lemon extract, hazelnut extract or coconut extract – optional
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Details
Servings 2
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Lightly grease two round 9” cake pans. If you worry about the shortbread possibly sticking in your particular pans, line them with parchment, and grease the parchment.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract, then beat in the flour. The mixture may seem a little dry at first; keep beating till it comes together. If it absolutely won’t come together, dribble in up to 1 T of water, until it does. This is a stiff dough.
Divide the dough in half, and press each half into one of the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with your fingers, or with a mini rolling pin.
Use a fork to prick the dough all over; this allows any steam to escape, and prevents the shortbread from bubbling as it bakes. Prick the dough in a random pattern, but it looks nicer pricked with some kind of symmetry. Sprinkle with coarse sugar before baking if desired.
Bake the shortbread until it’s a light golden brown across the top surface, and a deeper golden brown around the edges, about 35 minutes.
Remove it from the oven, and immediately turn each shortbread round out onto a clean work surface.
Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut each round into 12 wedges. Do this while the shortbread is still warm; if you wait until it’s cool, it won’t cut easily. Transfer the shortbread wedges to a rack to cool.
Serve as is or decorate, if desired. Here are a few suggestions:
Drizzle with melted caramel
Spread with melted chocolate and sprinkle with nuts
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