kayeon eats: A trio of Shortbread Cookies

I’ve always liked shortbread, what’s not to like? It’s buttery and melts in your mouth! Well I guess people might complain because it’s a little dry, but that’s why you have it with tea! Well anyway… I have never made this before (in this iteration because technically, I tried once before but failed miserably) and I tried it with a couple different ingredients. It’s not a new thing to have earl grey or matcha green tea in shortbread, because I’ve seen and tasted it before…but I guess I don’t want to pay the premium for having to buy it elsewhere (which I have no clue where to buy it).

In any case. Yes. It’s the holiday time, I’m baking for my friends and family, because I think showing your love for someone through making something from scratch for them… is on the one hand satisfying to have the sense of accomplishment and on the other, means you can “taste test” as many as you’d like without feeling it in your wallet. It’s a win win situation!

So a few important notes from my epic fail earlier:

(what to avoid: it’s hard to tell, but that’s an earl grey shortbread cookie that… was a major disappointment)

If you’re making these gluten free. Make sure you use flours that are super absorbent such as cornstarch or sweet rice flour. I used Spelt, Tapioca and Sorghum which was a little bit of a disaster. (see photo above. No good)
Make sure you bake these at 300 degrees F. Too hot will brown the outside but leave the inside under baked.
Refrigerate the dough before you roll it out to use it. It will seem really tough at the start when you work with it out of the fridge, but after a little beating and a little kneading… it’ll cooperate with you.
The dough may seem dry, but add all the flour that I tell you to add. Mix and knead with your hand if you need to, but trust me. If the dough isn’t dry, it’ll spread like a pancake on you (again, see photo above)

What you want it to look like:

Ingredients:

(Note: I doubled the recipe in the pictures, so follow the steps, but it’s half the amount)

1 cup all purpose flour + 1 cup whole wheat flour
or: 1/2 cup Corn Starch, 1 + 1/2 cups Sweet Rice Flour for a gluten free alternative
1/4 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 cup Butter (or shortening if you’re making it vegan), At Room Temperature
1/2 cup Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Optional: 3 Tbsp Matcha Green Tea, 1 Earl Grey Tea bag, 1 Tbsp Japanese Green Tea, Orange zest, Lemon zest, Poppy Seeds, Ground Hazelnuts, Ground walnuts, Chopped Cranberries, White Chocolate, Instant Coffee Powder, Chocolate Chips, Ground Cinnamon, anything!

1. Cut butter into cubes, then beat butter until smooth and creamy with an electric beater, then add sugar and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes until fluffy.

2. Take excess butter mixture off the blades and then with a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and gently fold in the flour(s) until fully incorporated. When you get a handful of the dough, press it together in your hand and it should hold its shape.

3. Divide up the dough in different bowls for different flavours. Add the flavouring whether it be Matcha Powdered Green Tea, Earl Grey Green Tea, Orange Zest, Nuts or anything for that matter. Mix the flavouring in with your hands to fully incorporate into the dough.

Earl Grey:

Matcha Green Tea Powder + Japanese Toasted Rice Green Tea:

Plain Shortbread:

4. Wrap each in Plastic Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or over night.

5. Take the dough's out of the fridge when you want to use it. Preheat the oven to 300 Degrees F and clean off your work station. Lightly Flour the surface with a dusting.

6. With a wooden rolling pin, take the dough (unwrapped) and beat it a few times to loosen it up. You may want to knead it a bit to make it more pliable. It will feel very hard from having it chilling in the fridge. Start rolling out the dough. The edges will probably try to crack. No worries, just work the edges with your hand or the rolling pin to patch it as you go. It might still be too cold. Keep warming it up with your hands (but not too much) until it’s workable.

7. How thick? About 1/8 of an inch or however thick you want it. The thing with shortbread is that there is no leavener so it won’t rise. How ever thick you roll it out, it will stay that thickness. Dip your cookie cuter in some flour, then punch out the shapes.