Spiced Shortbread Cookies
These cookies are what I consider the platonic ideal of shortbread. They’re crisp and crumbly and melt in your mouth. They’re mild and subtly sweet, they call for nothing but butter, flour, sugar, and some spices. The cookies pictured here are actually a little browner than I prefer- at a light golden color, they’re the perfect texture- but I baked that particular batch for my dad, who likes his baked goods “well done” (its as unhinged as it sounds).
These are a little fiddly to make (shortbread always is). The dough will feel dry and sandy, you’ll knead it for a couple of minutes and feel like it’s not coming together. The key is to stay confident and carry on. It takes a little work, but the results are worth it. You can glaze these with a simple mix of powdered sugar sugar, milk, and vanilla, but I prefer them plain, with a cup of strong tea. This yields anywhere between 12 and 24 cookies, depending on how many times you’re willing to re-roll out your dough scraps.
Ingredients
200g flour
60g sugar
140g cold unsalted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
Directions
Combine your butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor
Add your flour, spices, and salt and pulse until the whole thing is a sandy texture
Tip your sandy dough out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead with your hands until it begins to come together. This will take a few minutes.
Form it into a tight disk, plastic wrap it, and stow it in the refrigerator for 35-45 minutes. In the meantime, lightly re-flour your work surface and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 400F
Remove your dough from the fridge and roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it’s about 1/8 of an inch thick (a little thicker than a quarter). Use whatever shape cookie cutter you like to gently cut out as many shapes as you can fit. Remove them one at a time by sliding a fork underneath them and transfer them to your baking sheet. You can re-roll out your dough scraps to make more cookies.
I like to poke each one a few times with a fork and sprinkle them with a little bit of vanilla sugar before baking them on the middle rack for 8-10 minutes.
