Fruit and Nut Shortbread

Fruit and Nut shortbread? I couldn't believe it.

When I saw pictures of these pretty shortbread cookies on the online food log, Tastespotting last week, I knew I had to rush home and get right down to it. I love shortbread and the thought of yummy, colourful fruit and crunchy, delicious nuts in the melt-in-your-mouth treats just fired my engines right up.

I read through the recipe from Tasty Kitchen and decided to experiment a little with the basic shortbread recipe on the site. I'd read columnist for The Guardian, Felicity Cloake's post about "How To Make Perfect Shortbread" some time back and was inspired to try some of the different techniques she explores in her quest for the best shortbread.

I tried four different mixes:

The first was the straight forward blend of butter, sugar and plain flour along with the fruit and nut, chopped roughly. It was delicious. Nice and short. I could have stopped right there but I was curious. If there was the perfect shortbread, I wanted to know how to make it. 

The second was a blend of plain flour and corn flour, butter, sugar and the fruit and nuts. The corn flour altered the texture of the cookie. It was crunchy still but it also melted in the mouth as I bit into it. I liked that it did and was quite pleased.

But wait. There was another recipe with rice flour.

The third mix combined plain flour with rice flour, salt sugar and the fruit and nuts. This time, the shortbread was a little more crispy and a tad grainy. Nice but I much preferred the corn flour version. However, I did like the generous pinch of salt from this recipe.

So, for the final batch, I incorporated the second and third mix: plain flour +corn flour, salt, sugar, butter and the fruit and nut. Perfect. 

Aside from me being curious and trying four different recipe, shortbread is actually the easiest cookie to make from scratch. Because the dough should not be handled much (to keep the lightness and shortness of it), there is very little time spend handling the dough. In fact, most recipes advise you not to roll the dough but rather pat it into shape or into a sheet before you cut it. 

Or, you could just shape it into a log and cut circles. Really rustic and rather cool.

Fruit and Nut Shortbread

200g plain flour

70g corn flour

1 tsp salt

200g butter

85g sugar

1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped roughly

1/4 cup candied lemon or orange peel, chopped roughly

1/4 cup  pumpkin seeds, chopped roughly

1/4 cup  walnuts, chopped roughly

1/4 cup  sunflower seeds, chopped roughly

Whisk the flours and salt together. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Gently fold in the flours and the nuts and fruits and bring the dough together with your hands. 

Divide the dough in two and shape into logs. Wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate overnight or for a couple of hours, at least.

Pre-heat the oven to 150. Cut the logs into 0.5 cm slices and lay them on a lined baking tray. Bake for 15 mins or until the sides just start to brown. Remove and cool. 

Project Shortbread (Part II)

You know the saying "Stop looking for love; let love find you"? No? Well, in my teenage years when I was desperate for a date (its a long story, this isn't the place for it), I got that advice quite a bit. I thought it was just hogwash at the time but now I am not so sure.

I stopped looking and I found love.

No, this isn't a soppy account of how I met my husband. It's a soppy account of how I finally found the perfect shortbread.

You see, about two weeks ago, I went on a frenzied quest to find the perfect recipe for the perfect shortbread. I searched for and tried a dozen (well, not quite but close) different recipes. I don't think I found the perfect recipe for the perfect shortbread but I twas pretty happy with the results of Project Shortbread.

Then, when I wasn't looking, I found this recipe for Polvorones (Spanish shortbread). Or rather, it found me. I was doing my regular food blog rounds when I came across a recipe for Pistachio Polvorones on sophisticatedgourmet.com. It was love at first sight. The perfect little round sugar-coated cookies were so beautiful, so perfect. Actually, they reminded me of an Indian dessert I love — ghee balls —and I think that's what attracted me first.

I had to make these. I had no choice. It was fate.

Made of sugar, flour, butter and nuts, Polvorones are traditionally made around Christmas time. They're sometimes called "Wedding Cookies" (maybe its the dusting of powdered sugar that gives it a "wedding feel" — you know, white wedding and all that?) and can be found, individually wrapped kinda like a sweet — quite commonly in Spain, Mexico, the Philippines and America (well not exclusively in these places but especially so).

Now, let me tell you why I love these cookies. They are deliciously nutty ground almond and chopped pistachios — imagine that; they're fantastically soft and delightfully crumbly. The icing sugar on top adds to the allure of the cookie that, on its own, isn't terribly sweet.

It is my favourite shortbread... of the moment.

Pistachio Polvorones
(adapted from sophisticatedgourmet.com)

11/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
226g butter, softened
3/4 cup icing sugar (and more for dusting)
11/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
3/4 cup chopped pistachios
1/4 cup ground almond

Whisk together the flours, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
Using a mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar in gradually and continue mixing until the mixture becomes light and fluffy (about 3 mins). Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
With a spatula, fold in the flour. Add the ground almonds and pistachios and mix till a dough forms. Don't over mix the dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 mins or till the dough (which is very soft at this point) firms up a little.

Once firm, remove the dough from the refrigerator and form little balls (between the size of a 10sen and 20sen coin) and place them an inch apart on a line baking sheet.

Place the tray of dough balls in the freezer for 15 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the cookies for about 15-18 mins or until the sides begin to get golden. Remove and let cool on the tray for 10-15 mins.

Coat with powdered sugar. Eat. Wow.

Shortbread Mania

I don’t normally dream of food. I think about food a lot sometimes (presently I have tempeh on my mind, almost constantly) and I often have cravings (mostly for calorific food like cheese pretzels or corn nuts); but I dare say I have never dreamt of food. But last week, I dreamt of shortbread. How random is that? Shortbread! 

So this was it: I was at a garden party (actually I was the only one at the party), sitting at a table wearing a kilt. I was looking intently at a plate of pale, sugary shortbread that was placed in front of me. There was a huge tea pot beside the plate, but no cups (how rude!). I could hear a a horse somewhere in the background but there wasn’t any sign of a prince (again, how rude!).Quite bizarre and a little boring, given that nothing actually happened in the dream. No story. No plot. No drama. I woke up wondering (of all things) why I chose a grey kilt and not a red one! I am weird ... for choosing grey... I know.

I don’t interpret dreams but I’d say I have taken “craving” to a whole new level. My subconscious was craving shortbread ... and I was more than willing to comply.

I’ve made shortbread several times before so I could have easily dug out an old recipe but instead, I chose instead to trawl the net for something different. BIG MISTAKE. Well, not mistake exactly, but what should have been a quick and easy baking job became a week-long project.

Turns out there are more ways than one to make the classic shortbread and I was game to try a few recipes in search of my favourite.

There are three essential ingredients in all shortbreads —  flour, butter and sugar (the ration between the three is usually 4-2-1) and the process of making shortbread is really quite straight-forward:

   Step1: Cream the butter and sugar. Most recipes call for softened butter but some use melted butter.
   Step 2:  Fold in the flour, being careful not to over mix the dough (unless you like tough cookies!)
   Step 3: Bake.

That’s the standard recipe I’ve tried and my biscuits always turn out well: buttery, soft and crumbly. But in my search for something different, I stumbled on a recipe for a vegan shortbread that uses absolutely no butter.

No butter?

I put aside my skepticism — can you even call it shortbread without the butter? — and decided to give it a go.

Experiment One  : Vegan Shortbread

 No butter? No worries!

Instead of butter, the vegan shortbread uses canola oil. AND, apart from the sugar and the flour, the recipe also calls for baking powder and rice flour (which many cooks say enhances the texture of shortbread). 

The recipe: 

2/3 cup Oil
1/2 cup icing sugar
11/2 cups + 1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 cup + 1/4 tsp rice flour (I used tapioca flour instead)
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
granulated sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160C. Line an 2ocm round pan with parchment paper. Mix all dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the vanilla and mix it in evenly. Transfer the dough (slightly sticky) onto the lined pan and press evenly with the back of the spoon or your hand. Poke holes with a fork and lightly score it into 8 wedges.Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake for 35-40 mins. Let it cool before cutting.

The result: It was pretty good actually. Way above my expectations. Soft, crumbly and very tasty. The only flaw: I kinda missed the butter. I like my shortbread really buttery and even though the vegan version was nice, I wanted a buttery biscuit.

The verdict: the vegan shortbread is a wonderful alternative for people who don’t eat butter. But since I do, I’ll  stick to my standard recipe.

Experiment 2: Melted butter and twice the heat.

Are you (pine) nuts about shortbread ?

The second recipe uses butter. But it uses melted butter. And, it takes a while to make because once you mix the ingredients together (pretty much the same way you mix it in the vegan recipe), and after you've pressed it into the tray, you have to let it rest (and you thought bread was difficult) for two hours MINIMUM) before you  bake it. And, after baking it for 30-odd mins, you have to take it out, let it rest AGAIN and then pop it back in the oven for 10 mins. 

I wasn't sure what the "resting" was for so I baked a batch without resting it at all and another batch with the required 2-hour rest. Turns out, resting made the shortbread more tender. Still crunchy (thanks to the double baking) but nice and tender inside. Still crumbly, like a good shortbread should be. The double baking seems like an awful lot of work but if you like a nice crunch on the outside of your shortbread, you'll be willing to go the extra mile. 

 Twice-baked Shortbread 

(from SmittenKitchen; adapted from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert) 

170g unsalted butter, melted and still warm
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

Mix the sugar into the warm, melted butter and stir till combined. Add the vanilla and then fold in the flour (mix the salt in first), bit by bit.

Line your baking tray with foil (let the foil hang down the sides). Press the dough into the baking tray/pan. Flatten and let it rest for at least two hours.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (150C) for 30-40 mins (place it in the lower rack of your oven).
Remove and let it cool for about 10 mins. Remove the shortbread (lift the foil by the flaps) and gently cut it with a sharp knife into squares. Place the squares on a lined baking sheet and bake for another 10 - 15 mins.