A little floral, the zest of orange, and all the melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness of the classic Butter Shortbread Cookie.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (120 grams) cornstarch
- ⅔ cup ultrafine baker’s sugar (C&H brand)
- 8 ounces salted butter (use butter with a higher butterfat content of >82%), softened at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- ¼ tsp orange flower water
- zest of ½ navel orange
Instructions
Fragrant Orange Shortbread Cookies
Makes 16–20 cookies or biscuits, enough cookie dough for two shortbread molds or 9- by 9-inch pans, or 16 stamped cookies
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a stand mixer, combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar, butter, egg yolk, orange flower water and orange zest. On low speed, use the paddle attachment to mix the ingredients into a cohesive dough with the texture of Play-Doh—this should take about 3–4 minutes.
3. To bake in a pan or shortbread mold: Press half of the shortbread dough into a lightly greased 9- by 9-inch baking pan or shortbread mold. If using a baking pan, score the dough into 9 cookies, cutting down about ⅓ of the way through the dough to score the bars. Whether using a decorative shortbread mold or a baking pan, prick the surface of the dough all over with a fork.
4. Bake the cookies for 20–25 minutes, until they are turning a light golden brown around the edges of the pan.
5. Let the cookies cool in the mold for 10 minutes, then gently flip them over onto a cooling rack. Wash and dry the pan or shortbread mold, lightly grease it once again, then bake the second batch.
6. Let the cookies cool to room temperature (about 1 hour), break apart along their scored lines or as indicated by the pattern of the shortbread mold.
7. To make stamped cookies: Using a 2½-tablespoon cookie scoop, portion out 16 scoops of dough, roll each one into a smooth ball and place them on bare cookie sheets, 8 to a sheet. They should be at least 2 inches apart.
8. Lightly flour a cookie stamp, tap off the excess and press it firmly onto a ball of dough, until the dough has spread all the way out to the edges of the stamp. Rock the cookie stamp back and forth gently and lift it off. Flour it again between stamping out each cookie. If you like, you can use a paring knife to trim the edges of the cookies, for cleaner edges.
9. Bake the cookies for 9–11 minutes, until they are just turning golden brown around the edges. Let them cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer them to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.
