two lovely shortbread recipes for festive baking
citrus and poppyseed and choc peppermint. Make a batch, give them to your friends, add the leftovers to your freezer biscuit stash
What I’m reading: Vittles’ newest piece, A Chat with a Dinner Lady. No time for books this week, but I have a FAT stack for the Christmas break
What I’m listening to: Soda Blonde’s new-ish album, Dream Big
What I’m eating: Fred’s sandwiches in Wellington. The Pastrami Melt SLAPPED (below)
A couple of weeks ago, I went looking for a shortbread recipe. I wanted a buttery, crumbly base for the pecan squares I was making, and I checked all my usual suspects: my stack of cookbooks, New York Times cooking, various reliable online sources etc. - and quickly became frustrated by an apparent lack of consensus on the best way to make shortbread. Everything I thought I knew about shortbread was thrown into question. You see, there are two different schools of thought when it comes to shortbread: the creaming method and the breadcrumb method.
Both mixing methods use a high proportion of butter, and involve working the dough as little as possible to achieve the “short” texture (overkneading the dough would develop the gluten, leading to a chewy, tough biscuit, rather than the tender, delicate crumb we are looking for here). For the creaming method, you beat soft butter together with sugar until light and fluffy, before folding in dry ingredients (usually flour and salt). For the breadcrumb method, you “rub” cold butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs (duh), and then continue to mix gently until it comes together into a dough. This can also be done in a food processor - and this is certainly the most efficient method, but I mixed by hand here because I don’t have a food processor.
I wanted to tackle the shortbread conundrum this week, since Christmas is rapidly approaching, and I am a firm believer that you should have biscuits on hand at all times during the festive period. I decided to make two types, keeping the ratios the same in both (as seen in the table below), but with two different mixing methods.
They’re both super easy to make: you mix the dough, roll it into a log and chill for a couple of hours or overnight, and then when you’re ready to bake, slice and pop on a baking tray. Egg white is a handy way to adhere something lovely to the outside - in this case, brown sugar for the choc shortbread, and poppyseeds to the citrus shortbread. Once the shortbread is rolled and tightly wrapped, it should keep in the fridge for up to 5 days, or you can freeze it - though if you do, I recommend thawing in the fridge until its soft enough to slice.
recipe: citrus poppyseed shortbread
Ingredients
175g butter, room temperature
75g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
250g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 grapefruit, 1/2 orange, 1/2 lemon
1 egg white
Poppyseeds
Flaky sea salt, to finish
Method
Place the butter and both sugars sugar in a large mixing bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat on a medium speed for about 5 minutes, until light and creamy. Add the dry ingredients (flour and salt), vanilla and zest, and mix to combine, either with the paddle attachment, or with a flexible spatula. When the dough is homogenous, tip out onto a sheet of baking paper or clingfilm, and shape into a uniform sausage. I went for about 8cm diameter, but you could make them bigger or smaller depending on your preference.
Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Remove the shortbread from the wrapping, and brush with egg white. Pour the poppyseeds into a shallow baking dish, and roll the log until it is fully coated. If you only want to bake a few, only roll as much as you’re going to use. Slice into uniform slices - about 1cm thick is good. Place on a lined baking tray, sprinkle with flaky sea salt, and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown and slightly cracked on the surface.
recipe: choc peppermint shortbread
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