Sweet Seashells

By norsegal8

After using what seemed like tons of flour, I discovered that potato starch was the key ingredient to these delicious sandy-textured shortbread cookies. You'll never taste the potato starch in the finished product, but it does heighten the cookies buttery taste since it gives the illusion that there's more butter in the recipe than there actually is.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup potato starch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup strained apricot jam

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F.

2. Dough: In a medium bowl, blend the flour, potato starch and salt briefly with a wire whisk; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter at medium-low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the sugar, then the vanilla, just until well combined and slightly fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Lower the speed, gradually add the dry ingredients and mix just until the mixture is thoroughly combined.

3. For each cookie, pinch off a piece of dough measuring 1 teaspoon in size. Shape into a ball with your palms, drop into tiny ungreased metal shell molds (20 shells to a pan), and press evenly into the molds with a fingertip.

4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies no longer appear shiny and are pale golden in color. Remove pans to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Tilt the pans slightly and tap them gently to loosen the cookies. Carefully lift each cookie from its mold to a wire rack, fluted side up. Decorate while warm.

5. Decoration: In a small saucepan, heat the jam just to warm and liquefy it. Using a small pastry brush, coat each cookie with a thin layer of jam. Dry on the rack until the glaze is dry to the touch, about 1 hour.

6. Store the decorated cookies in one layer in an airtight container.