- Hey bakers, John Kanell here,
and today on Preppy Kitchen
we're making a classic shortbread cookie.
These maybe won't win a beauty contest,
but they are so delicious,
and just everything you want a shortbread cookie to be.
They come together in a snap.
You can make them ahead,
keep them in the freezer,
pop them into the oven when you have company,
and be a total hero.
Let's get started.
I'm adding 10 tablespoons or a 142 grams of unsalted butter,
that's at room temperature, into my stand mixer,
fitted with a paddle attachment.
Although, you could probably do this you know,
with hand beaters as well.
I'm adding in a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
And now, mix it up.
(whirs)
After a couple of seconds of creaming,
you can add in 1/2 a cup of confectioners' sugar.
Now we're gonna beat this until it's nice and light,
uniform and fluffy.
You'd do a dish or two and then come back.
(whirs)
It's looking good,
I'm gonna add in 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla.
(whirs)
And let me just show you what it looks like.
It's kind of like a beautiful buttercream right now,
except it's like sweet, really nice butter.
Let's take this off of the mixer for a moment.
I'm just measuring out a 180 grams of flour,
I should've done this at the beginning, but I didn't.
That's 1 1/2 cups if you're using cups.
Very nice, okay.
Setting that aside, back to this business.
I'm adding the flour in,
in a couple batches, while this mixes on low.
(whirs)
Okay, almost done.
And, there we go.
(whirs)
Okay, it's all mixed up.
This is all mixed up,
we're gonna transfer this onto a sheet of plastic,
and instead of rolling these cookies out,
what we're gonna do is form it into like a rectangular prism
that we can just slice
to make those little beautiful biscuits.
Just press it together.
On a lightly floured surface I'm just going to,
actually knead this with my hands first,
just to push it together.
(dough slaps)
Like a pizza dough.
I want it to be really cohesive, no cracks inside.
We're gonna form this into a brick.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
I'm channeling a European butter maker.
I'm doing a horrible job at it.
All right, so anyways, this will get sliced,
so all I need is a cross-section
that looks like a nice rectangle.
I'm just gonna give that a little tap, tap that dough.
This feels naughty for some reason.
(upbeat music)
My brick has been formed,
it's gonna go into the fridge to chill,
I might even be brave and put it in the freezer.
I want it to keep that shape,
so it's gonna go into the fridge now,
and we'll be back once it's nice and firm.
So my shortbread is nice and chilled,
look at this.
(knocks)
It's like a block.
Alright, exactly how I wanted it, a block.
Anyways, we're going to cut it up now,
so I'm just going to take one end piece off.
Look at that, beautiful, nice consistency,
that's what you want shortbread dough to be like.
Let's cut it into uniform slices.
I actually have a great shortbread cookie recipe
with tons of spices, loaded with toasted pecans,
you can click up here,
head over to the blog for that,
it is delicious. but it's not easy to cut,
because of all those pecans in there.
This cuts like dream, especially with my sharp knife.
Because it uses powdered sugar it has a really,
really fine consistency.
(lips smack)
I shouldn't be eating this, but I am.
Now we're just going to set our little bricks up on here.
I'm using a Silpat,
but you can use parchment paper on a baking sheet
or whatever you want.
Space them evenly apart.
And now for the docking, this is really just because,
you know, shortbread biscuit is a biscuit,
and biscuits have those little holes.
This will help you attain that look,
but it's totally optional.
Into the oven, 350 for 10 minutes,
flip around halfway through.
So if you love this easy recipe, but want a challenge,
try my french macaron, they are challenging,
but worth it, because after you get it right
you'll be so happy.
Seeing this cookie come out of the oven,
I was like oh,
so pure, like an angel come down to Earth.
That is so good.
I like this better than a sugar cookie,
if I'm going to be honest.
The salt was so important,
never skip the salt in this cookie.
Thanks for watching.
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