My mother has been begging me me to make some shortbread for her, I'v never baked shortbread before and couldn't get why she would not stop nagging me with it- so I ignored her. She was so sweet and bought me Martha Stewart's 'Cookies', though I wonder if it was only an innocent gift because the book had a fair amount of shortbread recipes in it- very suspicious. OK I got the hint. So there you go, shortbread hearts for Mama (or your Valentine).
Before and after baking
This part I questioned quite sometime, I was sure it would be impossible to cut out hearts from the baked dough without it breaking and falling apart. But I kept telling myself that it's a Martha recipe and just couldn't be so misleading. And it's true, it actually works.
The only con (for your hips that is) is that you get loads of buttery crumbs that are just a pity to throw away, so I ate them for breakfast on plain yogurt. It felt more like eating a whole cake for breakfast but it sure was delicious.
Cranberry Shortbread Hearts:
230 gr (1 cup) butter
¾ cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sifted flour
½ tsp coarse salt
½ cup finely chipped dries cranberries
Preheat oven to 160c.
Put the butter, sugar, vanilla, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries.
Press dough evenly into an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking pan (or just press the dough onto a baking tray lined with parchment like I did). Bake until firm and pale, about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes.
If baked in a pan, run a knife around the edges; remove shortbread and transfer right side up, to a work surface. Cut out hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter (whatever size you have or like). Trim any stray bits of cranberry from edges.
Cookies can be stored at room temp. up to 5 days.
Original from Martha Stewart's Cookies.
.JPG)
Cute cookies. I like what you did with the scraps too!
ReplyDeleteIt's unusual to cut the cookies from baked dough, but they obviously turned out really well (and hooray for the leftover crumbs!).
ReplyDeleteI love your blog, your recipes are great, and you are such a good cook :o)
So sweet that you would make it for your mom!!
ReplyDeleteGreat technique of cutting the cookies after they're baked- the shapes look perfect this way.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteWe bumped into your blog and we really liked it - great recipes YUM YUM.
We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.
We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,
enjoy your recipes.
Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members
and benefit from their exposure on Petitchef.com.
To add your site to the Petitchef family you can use http://en.petitchef.com/?obj=front&action=site_ajout_form or just go to Petitchef.com and click on "Add your site"
Best regards,
Vincent
petitchef.com
Absolutely beautiful presentation and baking! Those look delicious! I may have to try a gluten free version of that one!
ReplyDeleteI never thought of putting the crumbs over yoghurt - that is the BEST idea!
ReplyDeleteAnd who would have thought you can cut the cookies AFTER the dough has been cooked...
Now THAT's my kind of breakfast! Ha!
ReplyDeletethese look very nice! good idea for the extra.
ReplyDeleteI've never had a recipe where you cut out from the cooked dough... But it seems like it works! They look really delicious! :)
ReplyDeletewww.kitchenkarate.blogspot.com
Just one word: Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThese look so precious and super delish.
ReplyDelete