We don’t bake a lot of cookies in our house because I have an insatiable sweet tooth. As a child I would stand alongside my mother as she made cookies or sweets and harangue her for a taste of raw dough or chocolate sauce. I didn’t know when to stop. “You’re going to be sick,” she would say. I would gallantly reply: “I want to be sick.” A cocksure and fancy free little fucker, was I.
Let me tell you, my friends: nothing’s changed.
Rather than learn to control my tendencies and develop a healthy, reasonable relationship with sugar, I’ve taken a stricter and less reasonable course of action: complete avoidance. I figure, if I don’t have it in the house, I won’t eat it.
This isn’t always possible.
Over my brief Christmas break, we made cookies for our son to leave Santa. He wanted to help in the kitchen, so I looked to make a simple cookie with minimal steps. Shortbread was the answer.
I absolutely LOVE shortbread, but at most bakeries it is always crowned with sugar. I think sugar is the worst garnish in the solar system. I love sweets, but I loathe when they are cloying. In the rare instance I buy a sweet pastry, if it it finished with sugar, I spend precious minutes scraping it off. A garnish of sugar on a sweet treat is gilding the lily.
I found a great recipe from Ina Garten which provided the core DNA. I ditched the dusting of sugar, and instead of chilling it and cutting it into little squares, we just worked together to roll up little balls of dough and then smash them between our palms to make little rounds. They turned out brilliantly, and I wanted to share the recipe below.
Shortbread Cookies
3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature (I would pull this out a few hours before. The softer the butter, the easier this whole process is.)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together.
Turn out the dough onto a wooden cutting board, and pinch off little pieces to roll into gnocchi sized balls in your hands. Once they’re nice and round, smash them gently between your palms to make little rounds, and place them on a waiting cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.
These are delightful with an afternoon espresso. Or, if you’re like me, you can eat 10-15 before you watch Phantom Thread on Christmas Eve, and spend the rest of the evening in total misery. Anything over 10 will also provide you with a nice kick of heartburn in the middle of the night.
Happy baking!