I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is Wesley, my youngest, is starting to eat a little more. He even gained a pound since last month. We’re making progress! The bad news is that today was his first day of preschool, and it didn’t go so well. At drop off I could hear him screaming for me as I ran from the building, and make no mistake, I ran as fast as I could. It took great strength not to head to the local watering hole and order a tall glass of vodka to ease my pain. Instead, I went grocery shopping because this is my life right now. I then came home to an empty house and made honey cake (coming soon to Project Pastry Love). Before I knew it it was time to pick little Wessie up. When I arrived I noticed two things. First, he was alive so that’s a plus. Second, he appeared traumatized like he’d been out at sea all alone during a very rough storm and was just making landfall now. We came home and both agreed to never talk about this day again. He then proceeded to sleep for 3 hours and I cleaned up the house because this is my life right now. Thank goodness for simple pleasures like shortbread.
Shortbread is easy to make and requires only a few ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, and salt). Don’t mistake it for being a boring cookie, though. It is rich, buttery and very decadent. I made this batch, which comes from the Joy of Cooking – All About Cookies, for my friend, Dana. This cookie is the real deal and so is she.
Here’s how it’s done… first, I pulsed together cold butter, flour, powdered sugar, granulated sugar in a food processor until it resembled breadcrumbs. I then added an egg yolk for extra richness and pulsed until combined.
I dumped the crumbly dough onto a clean surface and formed it into a ball.
I pressed the dough into a 9″x 9″ shortbread mold, but you could use an 8-inch round cake pan.
Once it had cooled, I carefully turned over the tin onto a large cutting board.
I gently cutout the squares to separate. If using a round cake pan you would cut out triangle wedges. Look how pretty!
- 10 TBS (137 g) Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into 1/4" pieces
- 1/4 cup (28 g) Powdered Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 TBS Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 tsp. Salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups (187 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Egg Yolk
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F., and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- In a food processor, pulse together the butter, both sugars, salt, and flour until it resembles bread crumbs (about 12 pulses).
- Add the egg yolk and pulse a few times until combined.
- Dump the crumbly dough onto a clean surface and form into a ball. Press this ball evenly into your shortbread mold, or cake pan. If using a round cake pan, mark the dough into quarters, and then mark each quarter into thirds to yield 12 wedges. Pierce the dough with a fork all around in a decorative fashion.
- Bake until the shortbread is very lightly golden, but a bit darker around the edges (about 45 to 50 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and cool on a rack until just barely warm. When ready to unmold, cut along the perimeter of the pan using a sharp knife. If using a shortbread mold, carefully turn the shortbread out onto a large cutting board, and cut out the squares. If using a round cake pan, gently retrace the cuts, then let stand in the pan until completely cool. Separate into wedges.
- Food processor
- 8-inch shortbread mold or 8-inch round cake pan
