Rosemary shortbread cookies
It's Christmas eve eve, and I have a sunburn. And sand stuck to my toes.
I am the happiest Platypus on earth.
Okay, so this is what I am making for my afternoon houseguest bribe: Rosemary shortbread cookies
I know what you're thinking. Rosemary? Cookies?
Hush up. They're good. Possibly my favorite cookies of all, and I really like cookies.
And they make your kitchen smell like omg.
Shortbread has this reputation, like pie crust, of being really difficult to handle. But really it's not. I mean, okay, I have an advantage, because my hands are cold. But seriously, it's just a matter of being quick and efficient and not messing with it too much.
Okay, so here is the shortbread recipe:
With your mixer, in a bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. What this means, more or less, is that you let the butter soften a little at room temperature, and then you blend it with the sugar until the mixture takes on a fluffy consistency. A stand mixer is good for this. I guess you could do it by hand if you were a very macho masochist with extremely strong arms. (I do not have a stand mixer, and every time I do this, I can smell the motor in my ancient secondhand hand mixer that I have had since I was an undergrad getting ready to burst into flames, so I have to stop and rest it a couple of times.)
Once the butter and sugar is creamed, mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.
If you have a pastry marble and a marble rolling pin, you could put them in the fridge or another cold place now too, to get cold. If you don't (I don't) you will just have to work faster when the time comes.
Preheat your oven to 375. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. The parchment paper is very important! Otherwise, you will wind up with rosemary shortbread cookie crumbs.
Take your pastry marble out of the cold place, if you have one. Whatever your work surface is, flour it lightly, and roll the shortbread out on it, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Try to keep the rolled-out shortbread kind of rectangular. It's okay to divide it in half if it's easier to work on smaller portions, and if you do that, you can put the other half back in the fridge to stay cool. Try not to get too much extra flour in it while rolling it out, but it's not like pie crust: you can't make it tough by handling it, because there is no water in it. However, if it gets warm, it becomes impossible to handle, because the butter gets soft. So work fast.
Cut the shortbread into little rectangles (I use a pizza wheel! It works good!) and arrange them about an inch apart on the lined cookie sheets. If you have too many cookies to fit on your cookie sheets, put the remaining ones on other sheets of parchment and put those in the fridge.
Bake the cookies for 8 or 9 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden at the edges. (I like them a little underbaked.) Cool on racks, on the parchment paper, which you can just lift off the cookie sheet.
If they kind of bleb together while baking, you can just cut them gently apart with the pizza wheel! Magic!
Makes a whole bunch of crisp, savory, unbelievably fragrant cookies. Store in an airtight container at room temperature with parchment between each layer. These are really good with a glass of wine.
Best. Cookies. Ever.
I am the happiest Platypus on earth.
Okay, so this is what I am making for my afternoon houseguest bribe: Rosemary shortbread cookies
I know what you're thinking. Rosemary? Cookies?
Hush up. They're good. Possibly my favorite cookies of all, and I really like cookies.
And they make your kitchen smell like omg.
Shortbread has this reputation, like pie crust, of being really difficult to handle. But really it's not. I mean, okay, I have an advantage, because my hands are cold. But seriously, it's just a matter of being quick and efficient and not messing with it too much.
Okay, so here is the shortbread recipe:
- 3/4 of a pound of unsalted butter, which is to say, three sticks.
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced very very fine. Make sure it's dry! Shortbread does not like water.
- 2 2/3 cups white flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or, if you are using salted butter, go ahead and cut this by half.
With your mixer, in a bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. What this means, more or less, is that you let the butter soften a little at room temperature, and then you blend it with the sugar until the mixture takes on a fluffy consistency. A stand mixer is good for this. I guess you could do it by hand if you were a very macho masochist with extremely strong arms. (I do not have a stand mixer, and every time I do this, I can smell the motor in my ancient secondhand hand mixer that I have had since I was an undergrad getting ready to burst into flames, so I have to stop and rest it a couple of times.)
Once the butter and sugar is creamed, mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.
If you have a pastry marble and a marble rolling pin, you could put them in the fridge or another cold place now too, to get cold. If you don't (I don't) you will just have to work faster when the time comes.
Preheat your oven to 375. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. The parchment paper is very important! Otherwise, you will wind up with rosemary shortbread cookie crumbs.
Take your pastry marble out of the cold place, if you have one. Whatever your work surface is, flour it lightly, and roll the shortbread out on it, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Try to keep the rolled-out shortbread kind of rectangular. It's okay to divide it in half if it's easier to work on smaller portions, and if you do that, you can put the other half back in the fridge to stay cool. Try not to get too much extra flour in it while rolling it out, but it's not like pie crust: you can't make it tough by handling it, because there is no water in it. However, if it gets warm, it becomes impossible to handle, because the butter gets soft. So work fast.
Cut the shortbread into little rectangles (I use a pizza wheel! It works good!) and arrange them about an inch apart on the lined cookie sheets. If you have too many cookies to fit on your cookie sheets, put the remaining ones on other sheets of parchment and put those in the fridge.
Bake the cookies for 8 or 9 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden at the edges. (I like them a little underbaked.) Cool on racks, on the parchment paper, which you can just lift off the cookie sheet.
If they kind of bleb together while baking, you can just cut them gently apart with the pizza wheel! Magic!
Makes a whole bunch of crisp, savory, unbelievably fragrant cookies. Store in an airtight container at room temperature with parchment between each layer. These are really good with a glass of wine.
Best. Cookies. Ever.