Today we want to talk about cookies, more specifically shortcrust pastry for cookies. It is a crumbly and light dough, made with a mixture of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. Shortcrust pastry is a simple and versatile recipe that can be customized according to your tastes. For example, you can add citrus zest, cocoa, nuts, or spices. It’s a great base for preparing all kinds of cookies. You can make simple cookies, stuffed cookies, glazed cookies, or decorated cookies. To prepare shortcrust pastry for cookies, it’s important to use cold ingredients. The butter should be cold from the fridge, otherwise, the dough will be too soft and hard to work with. Making them at home, the aroma that fills the kitchen as they bake is something magical, it brings serenity, joy, an experience everyone should have, and to help you succeed in making them perfectly, here are some tips.
Making the shortcrust pastry is simple. In a bowl, mix the flour with the cold butter in pieces until it becomes crumbly. Add the sugar and salt and mix well. Add one egg at a time, continuing to knead until smooth and homogeneous. If the dough is too hard, you can add a little milk or water. In this recipe, I’ve added chocolate chips, but you can easily leave them out if you want them plain.
Below you can find other delicious cookie recipes:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 50 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 68.66 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 8.28 (g) of which sugars 3.28 (g)
- Proteins 1.04 (g)
- Fat 3.62 (g) of which saturated 2.13 (g)of which unsaturated 1.23 (g)
- Fibers 0.15 (g)
- Sodium 16.60 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 14 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
shortcrust pastry for cookies
shortcrust pastry for about 50 cookies
- 2 3/4 cups All-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup Butter (cold)
- 3/4 cup Powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup Dark chocolate chips ((optional))
- 2 egg yolks
- Lemon (1 grated zest)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch Salt
- Pastry board Yizhet Non-stick Silicone Pastry Mat, Large Baking Mat
- Rolling pin Stainless Steel Rolling Pin Adjustable Baking Accessories for Cookie Cake Fondant Pizza Dough
- Cookie cutters 12 Pcs Cookie Cutters, Mini Stainless Steel Cookie Molds, Heart Flower Round Star
Preparation of shortcrust pastry for cookies
We work on a marble, plastic, or aluminum surface, not wood as it sticks. Arrange the flour in a mound and place the cold butter in pieces in the center, mix quickly to create a kind of crumble. Form a mound again where we insert the rest of the ingredients, then work quickly to form a dough ball. Create a ball to wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
In a large blade mixer, put the sifted flour and cold butter cut into cubes. Give it a few turns at high speed, forming a granule called crumble, add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients, turn at high speed for a few seconds, until the mixture is blended. At this point, transfer the dough onto a surface that is not wood, compact quickly with floured hands, form a ball to wrap in cling film, and let rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
After the cooling time, transfer the pastry onto a floured work surface, no wood, with a floured rolling pin roll out the dough, slowly and evenly, ensuring each time you lengthen the dough that it separates from the surface by moving it sideways. Continue in this way until you roll out all the dough to a thickness of about 0.2 inches. At this point, you can cut the cookies with a mold of your choice, gently separate them and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper at a distance of half an inch from each other, fill the baking sheet.
Cookies should be baked very cold, so once ready, put them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then in a hot oven at 356°F for 12 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Cookies can be stored in a tin box or cookie jar for about 3 weeks. Shortcrust pastry can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.
