Maple Shortbread Cookies

I adapted this recipe from one on the KAF website. It makes about 58 cookies (1 3/4 inch) with dough rolled 1/4-inch thick.

1/4 Cup granulated sugar (50g)
1/2 Cup pure maple sugar (85g)
1 Cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 tsp. salt

2 1/4 Cups bleached flour (292g)

Beat together the butter, sugars, and salt until fluffy.

Beat in the flour. It will look like crumbs, but keep beating. At the end, I use a plastic bowl scraper to bring it together into a smooth ball.

Divide dough in half. (I weigh it.) Roll each half out to 1/4-inch thickness on parchment paper with saran wrap on top. Slide the parchment and the saran covered dough onto a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for 15 minutes or so. You want the dough cold enough to hold an imprint, but not so cold that the imprint is hard to make.

Working with half the dough at a time (leave the rest refrigerated), cut the cookies. I have plastic cutters in the shape of maple leaves that have a spring, so that you can push down and make the imprint. The spring also helps release the cookies from the cutter. There are many shapes for these kind of cutters; they are usually sold for pie crusts. Re-roll scraps, and cut again. These will not spread, so I have been able to get 30 on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. I use heavy baking sheets; lighter ones may need less time. Cookies will be very lightly brown on bottom.

Let cool for a few minutes on the pan, then move to rack to cool. I find that shortbread has the best taste if you wait a day after baking it to start eating it.

• This topic was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.