Features of baking. TOP-8 best recipes for shortbread cookies: the classic version, with butter, margarine, with starch, cottage cheese, jam, sour cream, nuts. Video recipes.
Shortbread cookies are a sweet and crumbly culinary product that is made with high-fat dough and turns out to be quite high in calories. But, despite this, the taste of the finished dessert is very delicate and pleasant, and the consistency is quite fragile. In the classic version, there are only three products in the list of ingredients - flour, butter and sugar. However, at present there are many variations of this dish with the addition of auxiliary components and various fillings. Moreover, all the recipes for homemade shortbread cookies are extremely simple.
Features of making shortbread cookies
In accordance with the classical technology, it is possible to obtain a crumbly and brittle structure by enveloping the flour with oil, which prevents the particles from sticking together. Kneading the dough should ideally take place without baking powder or baking soda, quenched with vinegar. However, without these ingredients, it is quite difficult to achieve the desired consistency at home. That is why many recipes have appeared that simplify cooking for simple cooks and allow you to get delicious shortbread cookies.
Let's consider in more detail what products are included in the shortcrust pastry:
- Flour … In order to get high-quality tasty baked goods at the output, you need to take ordinary wheat flour of the highest grade. Corn, buckwheat, oatmeal and other types are not suitable. Before cooking, be sure to sift to enrich with oxygen and remove foreign elements. It is also recommended to add a pinch of salt to help retain moisture and prevent the cookies from overdrying.
- Butter … The classic technology involves the use of butter. It has a pleasant taste and aroma, thanks to which the baked goods are quite tender. Experienced confectioners use special cooking oil, which is almost white in color and does not have a pronounced taste and smell. At home, you can replace this product with margarine. And in some recipes, even vegetable oil is added along with butter. Before making shortbread dough for cookies, the product must be softened. To this end, most often in the recipe, it is recommended to simply leave the ingredient at room temperature. Less commonly, heat in a water bath or in a microwave oven. This will allow the fat particles to disperse better in the dough and soak the flour as much as possible.
- Sugar … Usually white sand is used, but there are options where it is better to take powdered sugar, both for dough and for decoration. Sometimes brown or cane can be added if the recipe requires it. In some cases, you can add sweetness to the dough using honey.
- Eggs … This ingredient usually acts as a connecting link. But if you remove the protein and introduce only the yolk into the dough, you can get a more crumbly structure.
- Filling … In this capacity, you can use different products. Chocolate, cottage cheese, nut mass, fresh fruits and berries, as well as preserves, jams, and preserves go well with shortbread dough. It is important that the filling is thick enough and does not run out during heat treatment. So, a little starch can be added to liquid jam to thicken it. Or make closed biscuits by holding the edges of the dough together securely.
- Flavoring additives … You can add cocoa, coffee, turmeric, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. to shortbread dough to improve the aroma and taste, and add special notes to the finished cookies.
- Baking powder … It imparts moderate porosity to the dough. Cookies bake better.
- Sour cream … This ingredient softens the taste and structure of the dough a little, partially replaces the butter, but you need to add it in a small amount, otherwise the dough will no longer turn out to be sandy.
The nuances of working with shortcrust pastry:
- The ideal kneading option starts with grinding flour and butter. It is this manipulation in the classical technology that allows you to achieve better friability. The important thing here is that the oil is not hot, but soft enough to make small crumbs out of these two ingredients.
- The dough must be kept cold before molding into cookies. The optimum temperature is 15-20 degrees. In this state, the mass is plastic, does not crumble or stick. Although, when rolling out the layer, you still need to crush the working surface with flour.
- For the dough to bake well, the cookie thickness should be between 0.5-0.7 mm.
- For baking, use a baking sheet or various forms. It is not necessary to lubricate with oil, but it is advisable to cover it with paper.
- In an industrial setting, the dough is baked at a temperature of 230 to 250 degrees. In the home version, the indicators vary between 160-190 degrees.
- The baking time depends on the thickness of the pastry and the temperature in the oven. We bake the thinnest simple shortbread cookies for 10-12 minutes, thicker or with a filling - up to 30 minutes.
- When ready, you cannot leave in the oven so that the baked goods do not dry out.
TOP 8 shortbread cookie recipes
Both adults and children are very fond of shortcrust pastry. But shop sweets often do not meet quality requirements, because many manufacturers add low-grade margarine, palm oil and a lot of sugar to their composition. Therefore, it is better to make a dessert at home. Next, we present to your attention the TOP-8 options for preparing a delicious crumbly delicacy. In the recipes, we will tell you how to make shortbread cookies step by step so that even a novice culinary specialist does not have any questions about cooking.
Classic shortbread cookies
The classic recipe is the easiest way to make a delicate and aromatic dessert. Among the ingredients are only the essentials to make delicious baked goods. It is on the basis of this technology that many interesting desserts with shortbread dough have been developed.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 370 kcal.
- Servings - 10
- Cooking time - 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Oil - 150 g
- Sugar - 100 g
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Flour - 250 g
- Baking powder - 1 tsp
- Salt - 2 g
How to prepare classic shortbread cookies step by step:
- We take out the butter from the refrigerator 30-50 minutes before cooking.
- Beat eggs with a mixer with sugar until the sand dissolves.
- Sift the flour and add salt and baking powder to it. Then we grind it with butter until crumbs form. We send the resulting mass into the egg mixture.
- Knead the dough, form a ball out of it and place it in a plastic bag.
- Before making shortbread cookies, send the dough to the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes.
- We take out the workpiece, leave it on the table for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the working surface with flour and roll out a layer of dough. Thickness - about 0.5-0.7 mm. Using a glass or glass, cut out the cookies, place them on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour.
- We bake for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. We take out, decorate with icing sugar or icing if desired and cool completely. The classic shortbread cookie with eggs is ready!
Shortbread cookies through a meat grinder
A very interesting version of a delicious crumbly shortcrust pastry dessert. For decoration, you do not need to roll out the layer and cut out various figures. A beautiful design is obtained thanks to a meat grinder. It is this device for the preparation of minced meat that allows you to arrange the plastic mass into beautiful flowers. Such pastries are also called "Chrysanthemum" and "Vermicelli". It is not difficult to prepare these shortbread cookies at home.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 3 tbsp.
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Butter or margarine - 200 g
- Sugar - 1 tbsp.
- Baking powder - 0.5 tsp
- Vanilla sugar - 1 tsp
Step-by-step preparation of shortbread cookies through a meat grinder:
- Beat eggs with granulated sugar. Add baking powder and vanillin to the mixture.
- Melt margarine in a water bath. This recipe needs a liquid oil base. Thanks to this, the dough will be able to take more flour, it will become denser, which will simplify the formation of cookies.
- Pour in the sifted flour and knead the dough.
- Prepare the baking sheet: cover it with parchment.
- Before making shortbread cookies, take out the knife from the meat grinder and put a nozzle with cells of medium diameter. Place a piece of dough in the tray and scroll several times. As the "pasta" comes out, we support them with our palm and cut them off with a knife. We spread it on a baking sheet.
- We bake for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees. We check for readiness, if necessary, increase the time. Shortbread cookies in the oven are ready!
Shortbread cookies with jam and crumb
These are very original homemade shortbread dough cookies with jam or jam. The cooking technology is only slightly different from the classic one, but as a result, the dish begins to play with new berry or fruit flavors. In addition, the recipe contains yolks without proteins. This makes the dough extra crumbly. It is noteworthy that the finished delicacy does not require decoration, because on top there is a ruddy fluffy shavings, from under which the filling is visible.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 3 tbsp.
- Butter - 250 g
- Sugar - 0.5 tbsp.
- Yolks - 3 pcs.
- Soda - 1/4 tsp
- Salt - 1/4 tsp
- Vinegar - 2 tsp
- Jam - 200 g
Step by step preparation of shortbread cookies with jam and crumb:
- Remove the butter from the refrigerator overnight. We put it in the freezer 20 minutes before the start of cooking so that it grasps a little, but does not freeze.
- Drive the yolks into the blender bowl. Beating, we begin to add sugar. After 3 minutes, change the whisk attachment to the thick dough attachment and add butter, cut into small pieces, and beat again for 4-5 minutes.
- Sift the flour and mix in the dough along with salt and soda slaked with vinegar.
- Put the finished dough for delicious shortbread cookies on the table, previously covered with flour. We form a ball, divide it into two parts in a ratio of 2 to 1. We wrap each piece with food wrap. We send the larger one to the refrigerator, and the smaller one to the freezer.
- After 30 minutes, roll out a larger piece with a rolling pin into a layer 0.5 cm thick. Cut out cookies of any shape, it is important that the size is medium. Put on a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Put a little jam on each workpiece and distribute it in an even layer.
- Take the dough out of the freezer and rub on a coarse grater directly over the cookies to cover the entire surface with crumbs. It is not necessary to press this layer, the chips should lie in an air layer.
- We bake for 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees. Shortbread cookies with crumbs and jam are ready!
Shortbread cookies with nuts
Another very easy to prepare, but incredibly tasty delicacy based on shortcrust pastry. Milk is added to the recipe, and instead of a whole egg we use only yolks to give the finished crumb a lot of crumbling. The filling is a nut mixture with honey. According to this recipe, shortbread cookies are very fragile, sweet, aromatic and incredibly beautiful.
Ingredients:
- Yolk - 1 pc.
- Butter - 80 g
- Powdered sugar - 80 g
- Vanilla sugar - 10 g
- Milk - 4 tablespoons
- Flour - 250 g
- Baking powder - 10 g
- Almonds, walnuts - 100 g
- Honey - 30 g
- Egg white - 1 pc.
- Cocoa powder - 20 g
- Water - 3-4 tablespoons
Step-by-step preparation of shortbread cookies with nuts:
- Mix the egg yolk, softened butter, vanilla sugar and powdered sugar and beat at low speed for 5 minutes.
- Add milk and baking powder. We also sift the flour and knead the dough - homogeneous, smooth. We roll a ball out of it and send it to the refrigerator in cling film. It takes 30 minutes to cool down.
- At this time, we are preparing the filling. Grind the almonds and walnut kernels into small crumbs. We combine them with cocoa, honey and water. Beat the protein to get a stable foam, and send it to the nut mixture. Mix until smooth.
- Before baking shortbread cookies, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Divide the cooled dough in half. Roll out one part on a floured work surface. We try to give the formation a rectangular shape. Its size should be approximately 25 by 20 cm.
- Put half of the filling on the rolled dough and distribute it evenly over the surface, leaving a strip for a couple of centimeters from one edge to fasten the workpiece. Now we roll it into a tight roll and pinch with a free edge.
- Cut the sausage at an angle to make small triangles. In this form, they are perfectly baked.
- We make the same blanks from the remaining dough and filling.
- On a baking sheet, lay the parchment and lay out the future cookies. We bake for about 20 minutes. It should be browning. When ready, cool on the table. Shortbread cookies stuffed with nuts and honey are ready!
Shortbread cookies with jam
Great and very beautiful dessert. Combines crumbly dough and fruit filling, for which any thick jam is suitable. We will use canned apricots in our recipe. They hold their shape well, do not spread when baked and give the delicacy a sweet and sour flavor. This shortbread cookie on sour cream is made by this product softer and more tender.
Ingredients:
- Sugar - 200 g
- Margarine - 200 g
- Flour - 500 g
- Sour cream - 2 tablespoons
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Soda - 0.5 tsp
- Vinegar - 1.5 tsp
- Apricot jam - 200 g
Step by step preparation of shortbread cookies with jam:
- Combine eggs with sugar, beat to get a thick foam. Stir in sour cream and melted margarine, as well as soda and vinegar.
- Gradually add flour and knead soft dough. After kneading, it will stop sticking to your hands.
- Cool in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
- We roll out a thin layer with a rolling pin (thickness not more than 5 mm) and cut out the squares with a simple or curly knife.
- Put half a canned apricot in the center of each piece and pinch the opposite corners over it. The cookies are quite voluminous.
- We spread each piece on a baking sheet covered with parchment. We bake for 10-12 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. We take it out, sprinkle it with powder and immediately put it on a dish. Delicious shortbread cookies on margarine with canned apricot wedges are ready!
Chocolate shortbread cookie
Cooking this delicacy is very exciting, so be sure to involve children in the process. They can be trusted with mixing ingredients, kneading dough and molding cookies. It turns out this shortbread cookie is crumbly and fragrant. Melted confectionery milk chocolate will also delight you with excellent taste. This product has very convenient features. So, even after cooling, the filling inside will not harden, and the dessert will remain tender.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 250 g
- Butter - 150 g
- Sugar - 50 g
- Honey - 50 g
- Salt - 2 g
- Eggs - 1 pc.
- Cinnamon - 1 tsp
- Confectionery milk chocolate - 100 g
How to make a chocolate shortbread cookie step by step:
- To prepare the dough, beat the foam from sugar, eggs and liquid honey. Add cinnamon, salt and softened butter. Beat with a mixer until a homogeneous mass is formed. Then we introduce flour. Knead the dough, refrigerate for half an hour.
- We heat the oven to 190 degrees. This temperature will allow you to bake crumbly shortbread cookies.
- Break the chocolate to get small pieces.
- We roll out the dough on the table and cut out medium-sized elements of any shape from the layer - round, oval, rectangular or curly. The number must be even.
- Put chocolate in the middle of the workpiece. Close with a second piece of dough and press along the perimeter with a fork to hold the dough together.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 20 minutes. The pastry takes on a golden hue. Do not bake it longer so as not to dry out the dough.
- We take out, sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with a small amount of cinnamon powder, and transfer to a dish. Creamy shortbread with chocolate is ready!
Shortbread cookies with cottage cheese
You can cook this delicacy at home in a very short time. It is better to make shortbread cookies with coarse-grained cottage cheese, rather than pasty, so that it feels good after baking. As a flavoring agent, we will use coconut flakes, which go very well with a fermented milk product, as well as a refreshing lime zest. These two ingredients give baked goods an exotic flavor.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 3, 5-4 tbsp.
- Butter - 100 g
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Cottage cheese - 200 g
- Sugar - 150 g
- Vanillin - 2 g
- Soda - 0.5 tsp
- Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
- Lime zest - 2 tablespoons
- Coconut flakes - 3 tablespoons
Step by step preparation of soft shortbread cookies with cottage cheese:
- Beat the cooled eggs into foam with 120 g of sugar and vanilla. Whisking gradually, add soft butter, then cottage cheese, soda and lemon juice. Next, we introduce flour and 1 tbsp. l. lime zest, working with a mixer at medium speed. After the second glass, we begin to knead with our hands. When the dough stops sticking to your palms, there is enough flour. We roll up the ball, put it in a film and send it to cool.
- In a deep bowl, combine the coconut flakes, the remaining lime zest and 30 g of sugar.
- After half an hour, we take out the dough and roll out a layer with a thickness of 0.3-0.5 mm. Cut out the circles using a glass. The edge should be dipped in flour from time to time so that the dough does not stick to it.
- In turn, dip each workpiece on one of the sides in a mixture with coconut flakes. We wrap it so that the filling is inside. First, fold it in half, dip one side again, and then fold it again to form a four-layer triangle with a rounded free edge.
- We spread it on a baking sheet with paper. We bake for 25-30 minutes. When ready, immediately remove from the baking sheet and put on a wide plate. A quick shortbread cookie with cottage cheese and coconut is ready!
Loose shortbread cookies in butter with starch
All shortcrust pastry recipes are very similar, because the ingredients are the same. However, if the proportions are slightly changed, then the result is a new taste and consistency. Sometimes, to achieve greater crunchiness, egg yolks without proteins are added. In this variant, we propose to introduce starch into the recipe. Instead of sugar, we take powder, this will also play into the hands in creating very delicate and crumbly baked goods. This simple shortbread cookie recipe will become a favorite for many.
Ingredients:
- Butter - 250 g
- Vegetable oil - 70 ml
- Starch - 4 tablespoons
- Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp.
- Flour - 3, 5 tbsp.
- Vanilla sugar - 10 g
Step by step preparation of crumbly shortbread cookies in butter with starch:
- Remove the butter from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. In a deep plate, combine it with 0.5 tbsp. powdered sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla sugar. Beat for 2 minutes, then add 1 cup flour and starch. Mix again with a mixer. The result is a mass with a delicate creamy structure.
- Add a second glass of flour and knead with a spoon, because the dough becomes thicker. Already at this stage, it is clear that the mass is pleasant to the touch, plastic and tender. Gradually add the third glass of flour. Next, we look at the consistency and, if necessary, add half a glass of flour, kneading on the table until uniformity is achieved.
- We cool the mass in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- We form a sausage with a diameter of 2.5 cm. You can give it an oval or rectangular sectional shape. Cut into pieces 1-1.5 cm wide with a sharp knife.
- Put a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet, lay out the blanks on top and bake in a hot oven for about 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees.
- Pour half a glass of powdered sugar into a bag, put ready-made chilled homemade shortbread cookies inside and roll them on all sides. This method will keep the kitchen clean and tidy. We put it in a beautiful vase on a leg and serve it to the table. The most delicate and very crumbly shortcrust pastry biscuits with the addition of starch are ready!
