The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-A Trio of Shortbreads

 

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-A Trio of Shortbreads

Last year I did a cooking project called The Twelve Weeks of Christmas, where I explored Christmas cooking and baking traditions from around the world. I had a lot of fun with it and decided to do another edition of it this year, but focusing on Christmas cookies. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the time and should have started this two weeks ago. Because I was able to scramble and do three cookie recipes this weekend, I'm caught up to where I should be, but naming it "weeks" in the project title no longer makes sense since I'll only be doing ten posts. I decided to rename it "cookies" instead, since that is still going to be accurate.

So, this weekend, I ended up making a trio of shortbread cookies: Almond shortbread, Orange Cornmeal Shortbread, and Brown Butter Pecan Shortbread. All of them have online sources, so I won't be typing out the recipes, for copyright reasons. I'll share the links though.

First up was this recipe. I make shortbread cookies almost every year and they take a lot of time and effort. I was shocked to see that there are recipes that are so much easier even if they have more ingredients! The almond shortbread was one of them.

I've never tried to use a pastry cutter before to make shortbread, but I didn't feel like lugging out my mixer and tried that instead. It worked really well! I highly recommend it!

I've never made shortbread this way before. Freeze a pie pan and press the dough into it. Then freeze it again for a bit so it solidifies. This is a small batch, but it's worth it!

Press the almonds on top before baking. The pie pan went right from the freezer into the hot oven and had no problems. I was nervous that it might shatter, but pyrex is great stuff!

Here is the final product. Brown sugar adds a different flavor to the shortbread, and the almonds add a great texture. These get cut into triangles. I think they look quite elegant.

The second recipe was this one. I've never had orange or cornmeal in shortbread before, so it was fun to try this one. I made the first two on Saturday, before going to a small family gathering Saturday evening.

I can't believe it took me till now to try out the pastry cutter. I don't think I'll ever use a mixer again! This one is started off more like the one I make each year, with butter and powdered sugar.

I also learned that you can add the orange zest without chopping it into smaller pieces, and the pastry cutter will cut it as it helps blend it too.

Once the dough comes together, you roll them into logs and wrap them in plastic. I took these to my family gathering and actually baked them there.

When you're ready to bake them, you roll the logs in the rest of the cornmeal. This will give it a great and very unique texture.

It made at least twice as much as the recipe says it will. Luckily, the sheetpan was big enough to fit all of them on in one batch.

This is what they look like after baking. My family all seemed to enjoy this one and the almond shortbread too. It turned out great, because I rarely am able to involve my family in these recipes and they were able to try them right out of the oven.

My third recipe, was Brown Butter Pecan Shortbread. 

This had the most prep work involved, so I did it today when I had more time. First you toast and grind the pecans, then you brown and strain the butter. Above is the finished product for both of those.

This one used white sugar. All three recipes used a different type of sugar. It just shows you how versatile shortbread really is. I was also struck by how easy it was to make all three of these recipes. No matter how fancy they are, the main concept remains the same.

Here is the two kinds of butter mixed with the sugar.

And with all the ingredients mixed in. It's very crumbly, but it comes together very well and easily.

This recipe calls for being patted out to a large rectangle and I tried out something new that again I think I'll work into my annual shortbread making that makes it so much easier. Roll and pat it out right in the sheetpan, on parchment paper. I can't believe I've never tried this before, it's ridiculously easier...

Then you prick it with a fork all over the surface to keep it from puffing up.

And after you take it out of the oven, you cut them into bars. This one is a really light-tasting shortbread. There isn't a lot of sugar, so it's not very sweet. The texture is great, though. I was nervous that the recipe doesn't chill at all. What kind of shortbread doesn't have a chilling step? This one, apparently. But I think they turned out just fine!

I plan on freezing some of these to share with my coworkers this week, and then maybe keeping the rest for Christmas. The idea with this project was that I would do a blend of freezable and non-freezable recipes, and do the freezable ones earlier on. All three of these turned out really great and I'm very excited to share them with others!

I am very tired after a whirlwind, unplanned triple shortbread baking adventure this weekend! Starting next weekend, it'll be one recipe a week. Hallmark also starts up their Christmas movie extravaganza and I am looking forward to watching new movies and eating Christmas cookies at the same time!!

Happy Baking!