The decorated shortbread cookies are delicious, tasty, delightful, and fun to make. Exactly. Delightful. Also fun to make. All you will need is some shortbread dough, a bit of cocoa, a few cute stencils for cookies, and a brush. Thus, the decorated shortbread cookies, packaged in a lovely bag, will be a charming homemade gift but will also brighten up the tea table!
Not to be missed
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 30 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven, Electric oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
The butter should be cold from the refrigerator and the egg at room temperature. The quantities of this shortbread are suitable for the use of a cookie stamp and decorating stencils. Using a classic recipe or changing the quantities, you risk losing the design during baking.
With the indicated quantities, I obtained 30 cookies with a thickness of 1/4 inch.
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 5.3 oz butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Tools
- 1 KitchenAid Artisan Mixer
- 1 Perforated Baking Sheet
- 1 Rolling Pin with Thickness Rings
Steps
In the bowl of the mixer with the paddle attachment, mix all the ingredients until they are compact and well blended: flour, powdered sugar, chopped butter, egg, and vanilla.
Take the dough and work it on the work surface forming a slightly flattened rectangular loaf. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for two hours.
After the resting time, return the loaf to the lightly floured work surface and using the rolling pin with 1/4 inch thickness rings, roll out the shortbread. Cut out the cookies with suitable cookie cutters (I used a fluted square one and a rectangular one).
Place the chosen stencil on one cookie at a time, making it adhere with gentle pressure. Using a brush, sprinkle the cocoa by dabbing the stencil over the design: make sure to use just a little! Grasping it at the two opposite corners, gently lift the stencil. Clean it and proceed with all the cookies in the same way.
Place the cookies on a perforated baking sheet and refrigerate them for 15 minutes, then bake them at 356 °F (static), preheated for 15 minutes.
Notes
I bought the cutters I used on Cocorò. As well as the stencils: they are all HERE. And the recipe is the one that comes with the cutter. The recipe is by Miriam Bonizzi, you can find it online or in her book “The Perfect Shortbread“
