Shortbread

By SamU

Ingredients

• Last December I decided to find the perfect shortbread cookie recipe. After two weeks and lots of different techniques, I learned the following:
• Cookies using cornstarch or potato starch can taste funny.
• Rice flour makes the cookie have a nice crumbly texture.
• Do not overmix the dough. Starting with cool butter (slightly cooler than room temp), use your fingertips to mix it into the remaining ingredients then gently press into the pan. Otherwise the cookies will be tough and oily.
• European butter was not worth the expense. It added subtle difference that most people didn't notice.
• I ended up with the following recipe:
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 c rice flour
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 lb butter, at cool room temp (can be browned beforehand)
• Sift flours into sugar. Mix in butter until resembles bread crumbs. Press into parchment/buttered 8" cake pan, prick with a fork and bake at 325 degrees until lightly brown (approx 35 min). Remove from pan and cut into pieces while still warm.
• posted by bCat at 6:21 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

Preparation

Step 1

Sift flours into sugar. Mix in butter until resembles bread crumbs. Press into parchment/buttered 8" cake pan, prick with a fork and bake at 325 degrees until lightly brown (approx 35 min). Remove from pan and cut into pieces while still warm.