I've always been interested in making graham crackers at home and they are actually quite easy to make. You can whip them together just like any other cut-out cookie recipe (like gingerbread and sugar cookies).

What is in graham crackers?

Graham crackers are made with whole wheat flour and wheat germ that many recipes called for. Apparently, graham crackers got their name, not from some dude named Graham who created them, but from the "graham flour" that is used to make them. Graham flour was actually named after a dude named Graham (it figures at some point, there was a Graham involved, somehow!).

What is graham flour?

Graham flour can be replicated with a mix of white flour, whole wheat, and wheat germ. The whole wheat and wheat germ, besides being extra healthy, give the crackers a more granular texture, and definitely add to the "chew" of the cookies. That's a win–win, if you ask me. I'm definitely going to keep a batch on hand at all times, just so that I am ready to make last-minute graham cracker crusts and microwave s'mores whenever I want to. I can't wait to play with them in the kitchen.

How to Make

Graham crackers are made like any cookie cut-out recipe because that's what they are. All you have to do is make a sweet, but not too sweet cookie dough, roll it out, cut out the cookies, chill, and bake!

What to do with graham crackers

Once you've mastered making graham crackers, you can use them as a building block for so many great recipes!

Use them in a graham cracker crust

Graham crackers can be ground into crumbs, then mixed with a little melted butter and sugar to make a very easy graham cracker crust for desserts like:

• tarts, like in this Earl Grey chocolate tart
• bars, like these s'more bars

Use them as a garnish or topping

Crumbled or ground graham crackers make a great garnish for desserts:

• Serve them on top of milk chocolate pots de crème with toasted vanilla marshmallows
• Garnish a lemon mousse with graham cracker crumbs
• Make a crumb topping out of them and then top a cinnamon apple crumb cake with them before baking

Incorporate them into doughs and batters

• Christina Tosi's compost pound cake
• Milk Bar's compost cookies
• These Canadian Nanaimo bars and white chocolate Nanaimo bars are made with lots of graham cracker crumbs and coconut incorporated in the crust mixture

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Homemade Graham Crackers

Learn how to make homemade graham crackers from scratch with this easy recipe. This baking staple is made with all-purpose and whole wheat flour and wheat germ, giving them a delightfully nutty flavour. Perfect for s'mores and ice cream sandwiches!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 30 cookies

Calories 124kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 205 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 125 grams whole wheat all-purpose flour
• 43 grams wheat germ
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 234 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 144 grams light brown sugar
• 30 mL honey

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat germ, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar, and honey until it is smooth.
• With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients, and continue mixing until the dough comes together. The dough will squeeze together nicely between your fingers when it is ready, though it may still appear slightly crumbly.
• Take half the dough and form it into a rectangle. Roll it on a generously floured surface until it is about ⅛-inch thick. Cut into squares with cookie cutters and place on a parchment- (or Silpat-) lined baking sheet. The cookies do not expand much in the oven, so you can pack them pretty close on each cookie sheet. Continue to roll and cut out cookies with the other half of the dough and the scraps.
• Freeze the cookies for 20 minutes until they are frozen solid, then prick decorative holes through each (I used my metal cake tester for this) and bake for about 10–12 minutes until the edges just begin to turn golden.
• Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• The original recipe is from Martha Stewart. I didn’t make too many changes, though I converted the recipe to grams (my preferred measurement for dry ingredients) and baked them for longer. The amounts listed are from my weighing, measuring, and converting.
• For the honey, I used my lavender infused honey

Nutrition

Calories: 124kcal

The post Homemade Graham Crackers appeared first on The Bake School.

While butter tarts and Nanaimo bars are classic desserts baked across Canada, maple leaf cookies are more popular in the East. They are THE cookie that Quebec children eat growing up.

The company Dare is known for their maple sandwich cookies, sold at grocery stores in Quebec and parts of Canada. The cookies are shaped like maple leaves and sandwiched together with a sweet maple cream filling. You could say that maple leaf cookies are kind of like the Canadian maple-flavoured cousin of the famous chocolate sandwich cookie known as the Oreo®.

What you will need to make this recipe

To make these, there are two components: shortbread cookies and a maple filling. Like most shortbread cookie recipes, you don't need many ingredients to make these maple shortbread cookies, nor the maple butter filling:

• butter is needed to make the cookie dough and the maple cream filling; use unsalted butter, though salted butter could work, but then skip the salt
• maple sugar adds sweetness and maple flavour to the cookies and the filling
• egg yolk helps bind the ingredients of the dough together, making it easier to roll, but you can replace it with 30 mL (2 tablespoons of whole milk)
• all-purpose flour gives these cookies structure so that they hold their shape and don't spread as they bake
• salt, preferably Diamond Crystal kosher salt is necessary to balance out the sweet maple filling—if using table salt, you may want to halve the salt to avoid these cookies being too salty
• maple butter, also called maple cream, either homemade or store-bought adds a ton of maple flavour to the filling. Remember maple butter is 100 % pure maple syrup, and you should not to confuse it with maple-flavoured butter that is a compound butter flavoured with maple sugar, maple syrup or even maple extract.

Chilling the maple shortbread cookie dough

If you make these cookies in the winter months, when it's not so warm, you should be able to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, without trouble. Once cut out, you should chill the cutout cookies on a parchment-lined sheet pan in order to prevent the cookies from spreading when they bake. The key to sandwich cookies is that the dough has to hold the shape as they bake so that the cookies line up nicely when you sandwich two together with a filling.

Alternatively, if your kitchen is warm, you may want to chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour so that the butter in it is firm. Then you may have to chill the cut out cookies again before baking to ensure they hold their shape.

Chilling the cut cookies before baking also makes it easier to cleanly score the cookies. Adding the leaf vein patterns that make the cookies look like real maple leaves is optional.

Making a maple cream cookie filling

The maple filling is just like a simple maple-flavoured American buttercream or frosting. Many recipes for maple leaf cookies rely on powdered sugar (also called icing sugar) to achieve a thick consistency. But this can lead to a cloyingly sweet filling where the maple flavour is muted. For this recipe, we rely on maple butter and maple sugar (a fine granulated sugar that is 100 % maple) to achieve the consistency. The texture of the filling will seem a little gritty, but that's okay. Upon storage, the maple filling will dry out further (in a good way), leading to a texture similar to an Oreo sandwich cookie filling.

Assembling the sandwich cookies is a little tedious and there doesn't seem to be a faster route. To save time, place all the shortbread cookies on a sheet pan, flipping half to expose the underside. Then place teaspoons of filling on the exposed underside of all of the flipped cookies, then sandwich them all. By doing a task at a time for all the cookies, you will save some time.

Baking with maple syrup

You will likely notice the absence of maple syrup in this maple cookie recipe. That's because maple syrup contains some water, and isn't ideal for incorporating in cookies and frostings. Instead, we are relying on pure maple sugar (made by boiling down maple syrup to crystallize it) and maple butter (a pure maple spread made from whipped crystallized maple syrup). Both of these ingredients are better suited for incorporating in cookies and frostings/fillings.

Baking with maple syrup can be tricky, which is why it's great to have other pure maple products to use, when the syrup isn't the most suited for the job.

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Maple Cream Cookies

Learn how to make maple leaf cookies, also called maple cream cookies with maple shortbread cookies and a maple butter filling.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Canadian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 13 minutes minutes

Chill time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 58 minutes minutes

Servings 28 cookies

Calories 152kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula
• Mini offset
• Maple leaf cutters

Ingredients

Maple shortbread cookies

• 178 grams unsalted butter softened
• 100 grams maple sugar
• 1 large egg yolk(s)
• 310 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Maple cream filling

• 78 grams unsalted butter softened
• 170 mL maple butter
• 75 grams maple sugar

Metric - US

Instructions

Maple shortbread cookies

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the maple sugar for several minutes.
• Add the egg yolk, and mix to combine, scraping down the bowl as needed.
• Stir in the flour and salt with the mixer on low, scraping the bowl as needed so that the butter mixture is incorporated with all the flour. Continue mixing until the dough holds together when pressed.
• Divide the dough into two equal disks. If your kitchen is warm, you may have to chill the dough for 30 minutes at this stage to help the butter firm up. If so, wrap both disks in plastic wrap to chill. Otherwise, only wrap half in plastic wrap to prevent drying while you work with the rest.
• Roll out the first disk of dough on a lightly floured surface until it's ⅛" thick. Cut into the maple leaf shapes with a 2¼ inch cookie cutter. Re-roll the scraps. Transfer all the cookies to a parchment-lined sheet pan. You should be able to fit about 15 per sheet, and between the two disks of dough, you will likely cut out about 56 maple shortbread cookies (to make 28 sandwich cookies).
• Refrigerate for 15 minutes before baking while you preheat the oven.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 °C).
• Once the cutout cookies are cold, using a pairing knife, score the cookies to create the vein patterns of the leaves on the surface of the cookies. This is optional but makes the leaf cookies more realistic, just like the commercial cookies. Don't cut through the dough, just score the surface of it.
• Bake until the edges begin to brown lightly, 13–15 minutes, rotating if necessary partly through the baking time so that the edges brown evenly.
• Let cool completely on a wire rack before sandwiching the cookies with filling.

Maple cream filling

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until it is creamy and smooth.
• Add the maple butter and maple sugar, and continue beating the mixture until it is light, fluffy, and smooth. This takes several minutes so be patient. Make sure to scrape down the bowl sides periodically to make sure all the ingredients are properly mixed. Use immediately.

Assembly

• When the cookies have cooled and the maple cream cream filling is ready, spread a teaspoon of the filling on the underside of a maple leaf cookie, and top with another, pressing lightly to glue the two cookies together. You can use an offset spatula to scrape any excess filling.
• The filling will be soft on the day you assemble the cookies and then will dry out slightly and set in place after about a day. Store the cookies in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 152kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 37mg | Potassium: 51mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 233IU | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Maple Cream Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

These coconut shortbread cookies are very buttery with a delightfully crisp texture and a little chew courtesy of the shredded coconut and slightly higher sugar content of traditional shortbread. These butter cookies are a variation of the kitchen sink cookie, which we've also explored in cakes via Christina Tosi's compost pound cake.

Ingredients

The beauty of these buttery coconut shortbread cookies is that they are made from pantry items and butter. These are eggless cookies, which makes them vegetarian-friendly for those who don't eat eggs!

• butter—I tested this recipe with unsalted butter. If using salted butter, you may want to adjust the salt.
• sugar—I've tested this recipe with all granulated sugar and with a combination of granulated and light brown sugar (50/50). It all works, but I like the clean, sweet taste of white granulated sugar here so that the add-ins (coconut, chocolate chips, and toffee bits) can shine
• salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using table salt, add half the amount or the cookies may be too salty!
• vanilla—these butter cookies have two full teaspoons of vanilla extract for the most flavour. If using artificial, you may want to use less
• flour—I always bake with bleached all-purpose flour though you may be able to use unbleached
• coconut—use finely shredded coconut, the kind that is great for macaroons (preferably unsweetened)
• chocolate chips—I prefer to bake these with mini chocolate chips so make rolling and cutting the cookies much easier. Big chocolate chips would be too bulky.
• toffee bits—toffee bits are sometimes referred to as Heath bits or Skor bits. They are tiny chopped-up pieces of crunchy toffee bar.

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Variations and Substitutions

With shortbread cookie cutouts, you have to be very careful about making changes because these changes may lead to your cookies spreading as they bake.

• Coconut: If you don't like coconut, you can try to replace it with ground almond. I think this should work though I have not tested this combination
• Chocolate chips: use mini chocolate chips. I love these cookies with dark chocolate chips, but mini white chocolate chips would be very tasty (and quite different)
• Toffee bits: Skor and Heath bars are usually coated in chocolate but these are not. Still, you could finely chop a toffee chocolate bar if you can't find toffee bits.

How to Make Butter Cookies with Coconut and Chocolate Chips

To make these buttery coconut shortbread cookies, you will use the creaming mixing method. I prefer to do this in a stand mixer, which does a better job of creaming the butter until fluffy, especially in the colder winter months, where room temperature tends to be cooler and the butter more firm.

Step 1—Start by making the butter cookie dough by creaming together the butter, sugar and salt (image 1) until fluffy and light before adding the vanilla (image 2), then stir in the flour and coconut (image 3) and finally the toffee bits and chocolate chips (image 4). Let the mixer run on low until the dough comes together and it's evenly mixed, but still a little crumbly.

Step 2—Split the dough into two equal pieces (roughly 365 grams each) and transfer each half to a sheet of plastic wrap (image 5) and use your hands to shape the dough into disks (image 6) before wrapping and refrigerating until firm.

Step 3—Roll out the chilled cookie dough to about ¼ inch thick using a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface (image 7), then cut out into cookies using cookie cutters (image 8). I used snowflake cookie cutters.

Step 4—Transfer the cookies to parchment-lined sheet pans (image 9) spacing them out evenly. I fit 8 to 10 cookies per half-sheet pan. Bake until the edges are golden brown (image 10).

Top Cutout Cookie Tip

To ensure cutout cookies keep their shape when baked. Chill the cutouts before baking them. I like to roll out the two disks of dough and cut out all the cookies at once, placing them on smaller cookie sheets. I chill the cutout cookies for 15 to 30 minutes until very firm, then transfer them to half-sheet pans one batch at a time.

Baking cookies with toffee bits will inevitably lead to some blowouts where the toffee bits on the edge of the cookie melt, distorting the shape a little. You can use the tip of a mini offset spatula to gently push the edges back in, fixing the shape a little when the cookies are still hot and delicate.

More Christmas Baking Ideas

If you tried this recipe for the best coconut butter cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Toffee Chocolate Coconut Butter Cookies

These cookies are very popular. They are quite like shortbread in texture. They are buttery and flavoured with Skor bits, mini chocolate chips, and coconut

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 37 minutes minutes

Servings 36 cookies

Calories 109kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO kitchen scale
• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Snowflake cookie cutter
• Sheet pan
• Mini offset

Ingredients

• 173 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 10 mL pure vanilla extract
• 220 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 90 grams mini chocolate chips
• 90 grams finely shredded unsweetened coconut or regular shredded coconut finely ground in a mini food processor
• 75 grams toffee bits

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt. Add the vanilla extract and mix it in, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
• Add the flour and coconut, and mix the dough until it is crumbly.
• Dump in the mini chocolate chips and toffee bits, and mix on low until the dough clumps together.
• Split the dough in two, and flatten each half into a disk. Wrap and chill them for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Line half-sheet pans with parchment paper.
• Working with one disk of cookie dough at a time, roll it to about ¼ inch thick (~6.5 mm). If it cracks, just press it back together. Cut with snowflake or star cookie cutters and transfer to the baking sheet.
• Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For the best texture and to make cutting out the cookies easier, please use mini chocolate chips and toffee bits if you can. Regular chocolate chips are too bulky.
• Use finely shredded coconut (like for macaroons) for these cookies, again to make cutting out the cookies neater and easier.
• You can replace the mini dark chocolate chips with mini white chocolate chips if you can find them.
• You can try replacing the shredded coconut with ground almond, but this may affect the texture and will require some testing first.
• I have tested this recipe with all granulated sugar and also half granulated, half light brown sugar. Both work great!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.
• If the toffee bits melt and spread along the edges, you can gently push them back using a mini offset spatula when the cookies are hot.

Nutrition

Calories: 109kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 23mg | Potassium: 23mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 150IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.4mg

Hershey's CHIPITS offered me financial compensation to develop a recipe with their line of chocolate & flavoured chips.

The post Toffee Chocolate Coconut Butter Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

Let's get real: any leftover pie dough that you may have often gets neatly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated, never to be seen again until you clean out your fridge and unwrap the surprise.

Instead of storing the leftover dough for never, why not use it while you've got the oven turned on baking that pie? Make cookies out of leftover pie dough! It's so easy!

What you will need

To make cookies from leftover pie dough, you only need three ingredients!

1. (leftover) pie dough (duh!), preferably chilled to make it easier to roll and cut
2. (leftover) egg wash to brush onto the cookie cutouts before baking, helping them brown and also acting as a glue for flavourful toppings
3. turbinado sugar or cinnamon sugar to add sweetness and flavour

Turning leftover pie dough into cookies

These pie crust cookies are so easy to make! All you have to do is:

• roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface
• use cookie cutters or a pastry wheel to cut out shapes
• place the unbaked pie crust cookies on parchment-lined sheet pans, spacing them out
• brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or coarse turbinado
• bake until golden brown

The beauty of using up leftover pie dough to make cookies is that you will never let leftover dough go to waste again! Plus you can use a few of these to decorate your pies and tarts (or hide imperfections if need be). I used these to decorate this pumpkin pie made without evaporated milk, for example, and the result is stunning!

Alternative toppings

I love to sprinkle pie crust cookies with cinnamon sugar before baking, but you have other options:

• granulated sugar to add sweetness without extra spices
• turbinado sugar to give them more crunch
• salt and savoury spices to make savoury pie crust cookies, like for example, steak spice mix, za'atar, freshly ground pepper, sesame seeds or poppy seeds, nigella seeds, shredded cheese, etc.

Another sweet option is to roll a sheet of leftover pie dough with jam and make slice-and-bake pinwheel cookies.

Other recipes to make with leftover pie dough

Leftover pie dough isn't a problem. It's a life saver! You can make so many small-batch versions of your favourite recipes:

• jam tarts
• butter tarts
• mincemeat tarts

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Pie Crust Cookies

Learn how to make pie crust cookies from leftover pie dough with this easy recipe. All you need is a little pie dough, some cinnamon sugar, and an egg wash to make these. They are light, buttery, and crispy, and not too sweet! You can use these to decorate pies and tarts too!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, British

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 60 cookies

Calories 26kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Rolling pin
• Leaf cutter
• Pastry brush
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

Egg wash

• 1 large egg(s)
• 15 mL water
• 1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Pie crust cutouts

• 300 grams all-butter pie dough or whatever leftover amount you have
• 30 mL cinnamon sugar more or less depending on amount of dough

Metric - US

Instructions

Egg wash

• In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, water, and a pinch of salt. Set aside.

Pie crust cutouts

• Preheat the oven to 425 ºF (220 °C). Line a few sheet pans with parchment paper.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the leftover pie dough out until it's ¼–⅛" thick.
• Cut out cookie shapes (or whatever shape you want). Place them on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving a little space between them for air circulation.
• Brush the cutouts with a thin layer of egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
• Bake the cutouts until evenly golden brown and baked through, about 15–20 minutes.
• Let the cutouts cool completely before eating. You can store the leftover crust cutouts in an airtight container or use them to decorate a pie or tart.

Notes

I like to use the harvest cookie cutter set for fall pies and you can buy it on Amazon.

Nutrition

Calories: 26kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 22mg | Potassium: 6mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 4IU | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Pie Crust Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

These cookies scream honey (and lavender if you are using it). Having munched my way through 3 test batches of these babies, I can honestly say that for the lavender honey cookies, it's best to bake them until the edges are just beginning to brown, whereas I thought the honey rye cookies tasted awesome when they were over-baked and quite coloured, bringing out the nuttiness in the butter and rye flour, and a deep, dark brûléed honey flavour that I quite liked.

They are a little more tender when just baked through, and a little dryer when they are baked to a deeper colour. However you make them, these will work. If you aren't a fan of honey, you can stick with the more traditional sugar cookie dough for cutouts. If you want something with more chocolate and mix-ins, try these coconut butter cookies with chocolate chips and toffee bits.

Easy decorating with stencils

To stencil the tops of the cookies, I used powdered sugar and Williams-Sonoma Easter Linzer Cookie Cutters, similar to these cookie cutters on Amazon. I roughly taped all the gaps with regular scotch tape so that only the Easter shape would get stencilled on as you can see from my pictures. Stenciling baked goods is an easy alternative to decorating. I used this same technique to stencil the top of a cake with cookie crumbs.

Serving suggestions

You can also fill and sandwich these cookies together with jam (like I did for these jam-filled shortbread cookies. I recommend filling with any of these homemade preserves, which pair well with honey:

• rhubarb jam
• strawberry jam
• blueberry jam
• apricot jam
• orange marmalade
• grapefruit marmalade

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Honey Sugar Cookies

These honey sugar cookie cutouts are sweetened with honey and flavoured with lavender. They would make great sandwich cookies with a little homemade jam or marmalade. 

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 32 minutes minutes

Servings 7 dozen

Calories 26kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 188 grams bleached all-purpose flour or half rye flour, half all-purpose flour
• 7.5 mL dried lavender optional
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 115 grams unsalted butter
• 113 grams wild flower honey

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the all-purpose flour, the lavender, and the salt.
• Cut up the cold butter into pieces and drop it into the food processor. Pulse to form a fine crumble.
• Add the honey and process just enough to form a dough ball. Transfer to plastic wrap and press out into a disk. Chill for 45 minutes in the fridge.
• Preheat the oven to 325 °F (165 °C). Roll the dough to ⅛" and cut it out with small 1 ½" cookie cutters or bigger ones. If making buttons, you can use the opening of a small piping tip to make the button holes.
• Transfer to a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for about 11–12 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
• You can stencil on Easter patterns with powdered sugar.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• I tested this recipe with regular and high-fat European butter (82–84 % fat)
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 300 °F (150 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 26kcal

I do my best to bake with the finest ingredients. Stirling Creamery, a Canadian company, has provided the butter for this post.

The post Honey sugar cookies (cut-out cookies) appeared first on The Bake School.

The secret to really good shortbread cutout cookies, that you can serve plain or sandwiched with a jam filling, is a sturdy cookie that is buttery and not too sweet. This shortbread cookie recipe is it. Whether you want to make shortbread sandwich cookies or you just want plain shortbread cookies, this recipe rolls out beautifully and is very easy to work with.

Technically, traditional shortbread aren't made with vanilla, but this recipe is. Using vanilla extract makes the flavour more complex, less bland. You can also try replacing the vanilla extract in the cookie dough with bourbon, rum, or even cognac.

The cut out shortbread cookies bake without much puffing or distortion of shape. They keep their shape while baking and don't spread in the oven.

Filling options

Once baked, these shortbread cookies are just firm enough to sandwich with a filling. You can fill them with:

• jam or marmalade (like this three fruit marmalade or this plum jam, or even a rhubarb jam (no pectin)
• lemon curd or other fruit curd, like in these grapefruit curd filled cookies
• thick chocolate ganache, like the milk chocolate ganache that you can spoon or pipe onto cookies once it's set
• maple butter (this would be SO GOOD!)

Note that depending on the filling you opt for, many options will require refrigeration, so you may want to store the baked shortbread cookie cutouts in a sealed airtight container at room temperature, and then fill the cookies just before serving.

Rolled shortbread cookie ingredient ratio

This shortbread cookie has a ratio that's pretty close to 4:1:4 by weight of butter/icing sugar/flour because the recipe has close to equal parts of butter and flour by weight and the weight of icing sugar is roughly ¼ the weight of flour.

For reference, I use a shortbread ratio of 1:2:3 ratio of sugar/butter/flour (by weight). But at that ratio, I usually press the cookie dough into a pan, as I did for these lavender shortbread cookies because the mixture is quite crumbly. These coconut butter cookies have a ratio that is close but not quite 1:2:3.

This recipe is from the book Oh Sweet Day! by Fanny Lam (available on Amazon). I've written a review of the Oh Sweet Day! book in case you want to know more about the book. I'd say these are a more sophisticated version of jam thumbprint cookies. For a richer shortbread cookie option for the holidays, try the Egyptian shortbread, which are a family favourite!

If you tried this recipe for the best jam-filled shortbread cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Jam-Filled Shortbread Cookies

These shortbread cutout cookies are buttery and not too sweet and sturdy enough for sandwiching fillings like raspberry or strawberry jam.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Resting time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 20

Calories 158kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula
• Rolling pin
• Heart cutters

Ingredients

Shortbread cookies

• 230 grams unsalted butter softened
• 63 grams icing sugar
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Jam filled shortbread cookies

• 125 mL strawberry jam
• icing sugar for dusting on top of sandwich cookies

Metric - US

Instructions

Shortbread cookies

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and ½ cup of the powdered sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
• Mix in the vanilla until combined.
• Sift in the flour and salt. Mix on low speed until just incorporated.
• Gather and form a dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 325 ºF (165 °C). Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper (I love the big Nordic Ware cookie sheets that you can get on Amazon).
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness. Cut out circles with 2-inch cookie cutter. Re-roll scraps to cut out as many circles as possible. You should get about 40 circles. With a tiny heart, star or diamond cookie cutter, cut out centre window in 20 of the circles. Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets, spacing them out.
• Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Let the edges brown just a touch. Not too much! Let cool completely.

How to assemble shortbread sandwich cookies with jam

• Dollop a teaspoon of jam on the 20 "full circle", bottom side of the cookies. Top with the cookies with a centre cut-out window.
• Dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Recipe makes approximately 40 cookies, but if you sandwich them together with a filling, that would make roughly 20 sandwich cookies once assembled.
• This recipe comes from Oh Sweet Day by Fanny Lam (available on Amazon)
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 300 °F (150 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 158kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 61mg | Potassium: 20mg | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 285IU | Vitamin C: 0.6mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.6mg

The post Jam-filled shortbread cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

The great thing about gingerbread cookies is that you can work on them in stages: make the dough and then chill it until you are ready to roll them (just let the dough warm up a bit on the counter before you attempt to roll it out).

Once you've baked them, you don't have to decorate them unless you absolutely want to, and you certainly don't have to do so right away. In fact, I decorated these a week after I made them because it took me a week to find the energy to make icing and dig out the decorating kit.

What You Need to Make This Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

If you want to make gingerbread cookie cut-outs, you will need the following ingredients:

• butter, preferably unsalted butter because you will add salt to the dough, but if you have salted, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise your cookies may be too salty
• light brown sugar though granulated sugar would also work here, though it would not contribute to the molasses flavour. Brown sugar may also lead to a slightly thicker cookie that is less prone to spreading
• molasses, specifically Fancy molasses or baking molasses. Do not use blackstrap molasses, which is too bitter for this recipe
• large eggs, don't use smaller eggs because your cookie dough may be too dry and your cookie dough won't roll out nicely, but don't use extra large eggs because they could cause the cookie dough to puff too much as it bakes, leading to a more cake-y cookie or a spread out cookie.
• all-purpose flour is needed to bind all the ingredients together and give the cookies structure. If you don't use enough flour, your cookies may spread too much as they bake
• baking soda is a base (alkaline). You need baking soda for the cookies to help with browning and also rise. Do not use baking powder. Read up on baking soda vs baking powder if you are unsure
• ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves are added to the dough to make these cookies very flavourful—these are the usual spices in gingerbread, though some may add anise or even ground pepper
• salt is really important to balance out the sweet molasses flavour. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the cookies will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case.
• royal icing (if you'd like to decorate them)

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and instructions.

If you want a baking substitution for the molasses, I have tested this recipe with maple syrup and it works perfectly. Replace the molasses with the same quantity of maple syrup. Please note that the flavour will be quite different and the cookies will be lighter in colour, even if you use amber maple syrup.

Top Tip: Chill the Cookie Dough

To stop cutout cookies from spreading as they bake (or slow it down), always chill the cookie dough before baking it. Cold butter takes more heat and/or more time to melt than room temperature butter.

To chill it before baking, gather the cookie dough into a disk and wrap it well in plastic wrap. Store them in an airtight container or a freezer bag in the fridge. In fact, you can freeze this dough for about a month, allowing you to get ahead of the Christmas baking. Simply defrost overnight in the fridge, taking it out the day before you want to roll it out and make cookies!

Other Gingerbread Recipes

If you love gingerbread, here are a few other recipes for you to try:

• German gingerbread cookies
• matcha gingerbread cookie cutouts for a green version that's super fun!
• gingerbread muffins
• gingerbread granola
• moist gingerbread cake with white cream cheese frosting and lemon curd

You keep these gingerbread cut-outs plain, without any icing, but if you want to jazz them up, decorate them with a batch of royal icing: beat together 190 grams of icing sugar with 1 egg white, and a splash of lemon juice. Whip it for a long time to build it up and thicken it. I used this white royal icing to decorate without adding anything else. The icing should be quite stiff so it doesn't run off the cookies, as you can see.

If you tried this recipe for the best gingerbread cutout cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Gingerbread Cutout Cookies

If you want to decorate gingerbread men, you need a good gingerbread cookie dough. This gingerbread cookie dough is great for decorating (and eating) because the cut cookies don't puff or distort in the oven. And they taste great too!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 50 small cookies

Calories 45kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Rolling pin
• Star cutters
• Piping bags

Ingredients

• 280 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 10 mL ground ginger
• 7.5 mL ground cinnamon
• 3.75 mL ground nutmeg
• 2.5 mL ground cloves
• 1.25 mL baking soda
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 67 grams light brown sugar
• 80 mL Fancy molasses
• 1 large egg(s)

Optional for decorating

• 1 batch royal icing

Metric - US

Instructions

• Sift together the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and the brown sugar, then add the molasses, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Add the egg, and beat it in. Add the flour mixture a third at a time. You might have to work the last bit in by hand.
• Divide the dough in two, flatten into disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for a couple of hours or until cold and firm.
• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Line sheet pans with parchment paper.
• Roll out the dough, working with 1 disk at a time, to ¼ inch on a floured surface. Cut out desired shapes and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.
• Let cool completely before decorating with royal icing and store in an airtight container.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 45kcal

I found this recipe in Josée di Stasio's Le Carnet Rouge, which is a gorgeous Christmas book: it's a smaller format Christmas cookbook, full of stunning photography, reliable recipes, and festive ideas. I honestly wish that I lived inside the pages of this book. It's beautiful! Di Stasio actually credits Nick Malgieri for this recipe. I guess it's a small world. So, from Nick Malgieri to Josée di Stasio, and then from me to you.

If you are in need of some Christmas spirit, make this recipe and buy Josée di Stasio's book (available on Amazon).

The post Gingerbread Cutout Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

I love all the gingerbread cookies this time of year, but sometimes, I want something a little simpler, lighter on the deep molasses notes, but with more emphasis on the spice flavours we crave.

Not into spices? Try this plain sugar cookie cutout recipe!

These spiced sugar cookies don't need any dressing up. The dough comes together and rolls easily, and they bake perfectly, without any loss of shape (probably because there's no egg in this recipe), yielding a crisp, buttery cookie with a lovely spiced flavour.

Decorating sugar cookies

I like to keep these cookies plain because I like to snack on them and dip them in coffee and tea. If you prefer to decorate them, use:

• royal icing, which will dry hard and make storing these cookies a breeze.
• powdered sugar (a.k.a. icing sugar), as I did for these honey sugar cookies.
• melted chocolate—you can dip half the cookie in melted chocolate as I did for these chocolate shortbread cookies and these matcha gingerbread cookies. It's easy and works well!

Storage

Store these cookies in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to one month. Make sure the cookies have cooled completely before packing them up!

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Spiced Sugar Cookies

An easy recipe for spiced sugar cookies that can be rolled and cut out with your favourite cookie cutter.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes minutes

Total Time 34 minutes minutes

Servings 42 cookies

Calories 69kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 173 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 150 grams granulated sugar
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 281 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 0.625 mL ground cloves
• 30 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt until the mixture is creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and spices, then add to the mixer bowl, mixing on low. The mixture will be crumbly. Add the milk and beat until a dough forms. Divide the mixture into two and pat into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cutout shapes with cookie cutters. Place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until the edges just begin to turn golden brown, about 14 minutes.
• Let cool slightly before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough and rerolling scraps.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 69kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 15mg | Potassium: 10mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 104IU | Vitamin C: 0.002mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.3mg

The post Spiced sugar cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

This recipe makes sugar cookies that are crisp and that you can cutout with cookie cutters and decorate. For other kinds of cutout cookies, there are these honey sugar cookies (sweetened with honey instead of granulated sugar), matcha gingerbread cookies, or more gingerbread cookie cutouts.

If you want something simpler, slice and bake is the way to go. Try these crystallized ginger sugar cookies, vanilla sablés.

What are sugar cookies made of

This easy recipe makes sturdy crisp sugar cookies that are firm enough that they store well and can be shipped. Here are the ingredients you need to make these:

• butter, preferably unsalted butter because you will add salt to the dough, but if you have salted, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise, your cookies may be too salty
• granulated sugar though brown sugar would also work here and would add a mild caramel/molasses flavour. Brown sugar may also lead to a slightly more chewy cookie
• large eggs, don't use smaller eggs because your cookie dough may be too dry and your cookies won't spread enough, but don't use extra large eggs because they could cause the cookie dough to puff too much as it bakes, leading to a more cakey cookie
• vanilla extract adds vanilla flavour to the cookies. You could use artificial vanilla extract, but use about half the amount since it may be more potent
• all-purpose flour is needed to bind all the ingredients together and give the cookies structure. If you don't use enough flour, your cookies may spread too much as they bake
• salt is really important to balance out the sweet flavour. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the cookies will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case.

Baking sugar cookies that don't spread

First of all, you will notice that there are no chemical leaveners in this recipe. That's because we don't want to encourage the cookies to puff and rise up (from baking powder) or spread (which baking soda could cause).

Another trick: get the ratio of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour right to prevent cookies from spreading. Too much butter, sugar, or eggs can lead to cookies spreading as they bake. Not enough flour relative to those ingredients can also lead to cookies spreading. Make sure to measure your ingredients carefully.

The final key step: chill the cookie dough. You can do this before rolling out the cookie dough and cutting your shapes, especially if the butter was quite warm or your kitchen is hot. Or you can chill the cutout cookies before baking. Chill them until they are very firm.

As you can see from the photos, these sugar cookies do not spread at all, especially if you chill the cookie dough properly.

Ways to decorate them

I usually like to keep sugar cookie cut-outs plain because I like to dip them in hot cups of tea, but if you would prefer to garnish or embellish them, you can:

• decorate them with royal icing using gel colours to dye the icing and a piping bag. This is a good technique if you want to ship the cookies in the mail.
• smear them with simple American buttercream frosting, the crusting kind made from butter, icing sugar, and a little cream or milk to achieve a smooth consistency.
• brush them while still hot with maple syrup (or even honey could work) and then garnish with sprinkles. The heat will set the syrup, drying it out and glueing the sprinkles. It also works on cold cookies, but not as well.
• dip them in melted chocolate, like I did with these matcha gingerbread cookies and then garnish with sprinkles (if you'd like).

Frequently asked questions

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Sugar Cookies

This easy recipe makes classic sugar cookies that aren't overly sweet and that bake well without losing their shapes in the oven. This is the perfect sugar cookie for cutting out fun shapes and decorating for the holidays, but they also taste great plain.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Diet Vegetarian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 80 cookies

Calories 47kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Rolling pin
• Sheet pan
• Star cutters

Ingredients

• 200 grams unsalted butter softened
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 1 large egg(s) room temperature, lightly beaten
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 400 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar.
• Add the egg and vanilla. Beat well until creamy and well mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowls as needed to make sure the ingredients are evenly mixed.
• Add the flour and the salt. Mix until a dough forms.
• Divide dough in half and form two disks.
• Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out to ~¼-inch thickness (or however thin you want).
• Cut out shapes, and transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Be sure to place similar sized cookies on same baking sheet for even baking time. Chill for at least 30 minutes to prevent cookies from spreading as they bake.
• Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
• Bake chilled cookies until the edges begin to brown (for crisp cookies). This takes 10 to 15 minutes depending on size and thickness.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• If you would like to decorate these cookies:
  • royal icing dries hard and stores well.
  • brush the freshly baked hot cookies with maple syrup and sprinkle with sanding sugar.
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 47kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 16mg | Potassium: 7mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 65IU | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.2mg

The post Cut out sugar cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

The basic recipe for shortbread cookies is easy to remember because it follows a 1:2:3 ratio of ingredients with 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour, by weight. We take the classic shortbread cookie ratio and substitute a portion of the flour for cocoa powder to transform them into chocolate shortbread. It's that easy! Here's how to make them.

Ingredients

You only need butter, sugar, and flour to make plain shortbread cookies. Here's what you need to bake the chocolate version:

• butter—use salted butter and you won't need to add salt
• sugar—I like to use granulated sugar for its texture
• flour to give them structure and reduce spreading
• cocoa powder to infuse the cookies with an intense deeply chocolate flavour without contributing more sugar which could cause spreading—use Dutch-processed cocoa powder because it has a more intense flavour and darker colour, not natural cocoa powder (read up on the different types of chocolate for baking if you aren't sure what the difference is)

Optional ingredients for jazzing them up include melted chocolate and some form of sprinkle, freeze-dried berries, or chopped nuts for dipping and coating the baked cookies

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Shortbread cookies are mixed using the creaming mixing method, so you start by whipping together softened butter and sugar. You want the ingredients to be evenly mixed at this stage before introducing the flour to avoid overworking the dough after.

Rolling the dough between sheets of wax paper or parchment prevents sticking.

The paper peels away fairly smoothly from the chocolate dough.

For rich butter cookies, you don't want to add more flour. Instead make sure to chill the dough and roll it out between sheets of parchment or wax paper. This allows you to make the dough thin without adding more flour so the rolling pin doesn't stick.

Rolling between parchment or wax paper also allows you to easily transfer the dough to the fridge to chill whenever it gets too soft. All you have to do is slide it on a sheet pan or a large cutting board to get it back into the fridge when you need to.

Use cookie cutters to cutout cookies.

A mini offset spatula helps unstick the cookies so you can transfer them to a sheet pan to bake on.

The cookies are baked on a parchment-lined sheet pan.

Place into oven at 350 °F.

Hint: if the dough gets too warm or soft to handle, transfer it to the refrigerator. Chilling cookie dough prevents spreading too!

Substitutions

Because of the simplicity of the short list of ingredients, substitutions are few. Proceed with caution:

• Sugar—I used granulated sugar but you can make shortbread with icing sugar (also called confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar). Replace gram for gram.
• White chocolate—you can either skip the white chocolate dip or dip in a different melted chocolate, like milk or dark chocolate. The cookies themselves are not very sweet, so use a sweeter chocolate, like a semi-sweet chocolate or milk chocolate to balance out the bitter notes.
• Garnish—I used crushed freeze-dried raspberries, but feel free to use other freeze-dried fruit, sprinkles, chopped nuts, or skip the garnish altogether.

Variations

Giving the visitor ideas on how they can change this recipe to better suit their dinner guests, or their cultural cuisine, is a great way to increase the chances they make the recipe

• Spicy—chilli and chocolate go hand-in-hand. If you are a fan of the combination, try adding a little cayenne chilli powder to the dough along with the other dry ingredients.
• Sweet spices—try incorporating a little cinnamon in the dough for another spiced variation

If you aren't a fan of rolling and cutting out cookies, try these slice-and-bake chocolate sablé cookies, which are very similar to shortbread cookies, but with chocolate chips in the dough and a crunchy turbinado sugar edge. Or try these buckwheat cookies with cocoa nibs. The cocoa nibs add a deep chocolate flavour to the slice-and-bake shortbreads without extra sweetness.

Equipment

Though you could make the dough by hand, I prefer to use a stand mixer. Here are my baking tool recommendations for this recipe:

• stand mixer—a 4.5 or 5 quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer will work perfectly for this recipe
• spatula to scrape down the mixer bowl and to make sure the butter isn't stuck to the bottom of the bowl
• rolling pin—I like a French rolling pin, personally, with tapered ends
• cookie cutters, like these heart-shaped cutters
• mini offset spatula to lift and transfer cutout cookies to sheet pan
• sheet pan

Storage

Store all butter cookies, including these chocolate shortbread cookies in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Humidity will make them softer. Shortbread cookies tend to be rather delicate, especially when rolled thin, so treat them with care.

Take this recipe one step further

You can use this chocolate cookie dough to make the chocolate version of these jam-filled shortbread cookies.

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Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Learn how to make the best chocolate shortbread cookies with this easy recipe! These are a variation on 1-2-3 shortbread cookies, made with cocoa powder in the dough, and dipped in melted chocolate after baking

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 13 minutes minutes

Chill time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 13 minutes minutes

Servings 32 cookies

Calories 129kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Heart cutters
• Rolling pin
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 68 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt omit if using salted butter
• 230 grams unsalted butter softened
• 115 grams granulated sugar

Optional garnish

• 175 grams white chocolate
• freeze-dried raspberries crushed

Metric - US

Instructions

• Sift into a medium bowl the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Use a whisk to make sure the ingredients are evenly mixed. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are well mixed and soft, but aerated.
• Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and stir on low until the dough comes together.
• Divide the dough into two disks, and wrap in plastic wrap to chill until firm (for 30 minutes to 1 hour).
• Using a rolling pin, roll out the chilled dough, one disk at a time, between sheets of wax paper or parchment. You can also use flour, if you prefer. Transfer the dough to the refrigerator if it gets too warm. You want the dough to be fairly thin (⅛–¼ inch thick).
• Cut out cookies using a 2-½ inch cookie cutter
• Place all the cutout cookies on a large sheet pan lined with parchment to chill again until firm, about 20 minutes. This is to prevent the cookies from spreading when they bake.
• While the cookies chill, preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a couple of half sheet pans with parchment.
• When the cookies are cold and firm and the oven is preheated, transfer a few of the chilled cookies to a new sheet pan to bake. You should be able to fit 6–8 cookies on a half sheet pan.
• It takes 13–15 minutes to bake the cookies. Let cool completely before garnishing.
• Repeat the baking with rest of cookies.

Garnish (optional)

• Once all the cookies are baked, you can garnish them, if desired.
• Melt the white chocolate in a bowl. Then dip each cookie in white chocolate to coat half, then sprinkle with a little freeze-dried raspberries. Set aside on parchment paper until the chocolate sets.
• Store in an airtight container.

Nutrition

Calories: 129kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 25mg | Potassium: 63mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 181IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Chocolate Shortbread Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.