Mary Fraser’s Shortbread Cookies

Cut-out shortbread

Mary Fraser led a class on bookmaking during Shetland Wool Week 2017. She shared with us the most wonderful shortbread cookies we had tasted all trip! This is her original recipe, as written on a card, with additions/clarifications marked by an asterisk.

At the bottom of this recipe are a couple of variations...


INGREDIENTS

8 oz plain flour (*put aside extra for rolling out dough)
6 oz butter (*she uses salted Lurpak or another European butter; butter should be softened)
3-4 oz caster sugar (*superfine sugar is a decent equivalent; put aside extra for dipping baked cookies into. More sugar might make the dough
very crumbly)
*1/8 tsp salt, if using unsalted butter


PREPARATION

From Mary: “Combine all ingredients. Medium oven. Watch like a hawk.”

1. Oven to 325

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar, then add flour mixture a bit at a time until combined.

4. Spread flour liberally on counter and rolling pin.

5. Roll dough as thin as possible, about 1/8” and use medium or small cookie cutter (or an inverted glass with a round lip) to cut into circles. Set aside unused dough; see below for more info.

6. Place cut-out cookies on baking sheet about 1/2” apart and bake for 12-14 mins, turning halfway through. They should be slightly brown when done.

7. While cookies are baking, pour 1/4-1/2 cup of the sugar into a flat-bottomed shallow dish.

A more traditional shortbread shape

8. When cookies are still warm to the touch, invert each cookie into a bowl of sugar, or sprinkle sugar on tops of hot cookies as they cool.

9. With remaining unused dough, shape into rectangles, about 1" x 2", about 1/4" high. Pierce top with a fork for the more traditional look. Bake at 325 for 15-20 min or until lightly brown on top. (They are thick and need more time to bake.)

TO STORE: Place in airtight container in cool dark place. Fridge is okay but don't put in the freezer. Other tips and info is at this webpage, Sensational Shortbread.

CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD:
Reduce flour by 1/4 cup and replace with 1/4 cup of Dutch-processed cocoa.

CHECKERBOARD:
Make one batch plain dough, unbaked, and one batch chocolate, unbaked. See instructions here for shaping dough, cutting into strips, and stacking them so they can be prepared as checkerboards. NOTE: Mary Fraser's dough doesn't use egg or vanilla but these "stacked up" just fine for use for checkerboards.

PINWHEELS:
Look at this recipe for how to prepare them.

NUTRITION INFO:

The info below for a single circular cookie can be used for both plain and chocolate shortbread; there is very little difference between the two. Less precise measurements were used for a "best guess" for the checkerboard cookie.

(left) NUTRITION INFO for regular shortbread (thin, small circles; serving size for calculation = 1 cookie; 54 g/cookie); 

(right) NUTRITION INFO for checkerboard (serving size = 2 cookies)