The decorated shortbread cookies are delightful treats to serve at snack time with tea or with a nice homemade fruit juice. Stencils and powdered colors to decorate them: I chose bees and butterflies to prepare a nice bag of cookies as a gift for a friend’s kids. A bit of time, a pinch of patience, and the decorated shortbread cookies will be ready!
Not to be missed
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: 30 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven, Electric Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
Ingredients
Butter must be refrigerator cold and the egg at room temperature. The measurements for this shortbread are suitable for using a cookie stamp and decoration stencils. Using a classic recipe or modifying the amounts might cause the design to disappear during baking.
With the indicated amounts, I obtained 30 cookies with a thickness of about 1/4 inch.
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup butter
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Tools
The links for the necessary tools for decoration can be found in the notes at the end of the article.
- 1 Mixer Kitchen Aid Artisan
- 1 Rolling Pin with thickness rings
- 1 Baking Sheet perforated
Steps
In the bowl of the stand mixer with the paddle attachment, work all the ingredients until they are compact and well combined: flour, powdered sugar, butter in pieces, egg, and vanilla extract.
Take the dough and work it on the work surface into a slightly flattened rectangular block. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for two hours.
After the resting time, bring the block back to the lightly floured work surface and using the rolling pin with 1/4 inch rings, roll out the shortbread. Cut the cookies with the appropriate wavy-edged cutter.
Place the chosen stencil on one cookie at a time, making it adhere with gentle pressure. Using a brush, sprinkle the pearlescent powder by tapping the stencil at the design area: use only a little, I recommend! Holding it by two opposite corners, gently lift the stencil. Clean it and proceed with all the cookies in the same way. To see pictures of the steps, refer to the recipe “decorated shortbread cookies“.
Place the cookies on a perforated baking sheet and put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, then bake them at 355°F, preheated for 15 minutes.
Notes
I purchased the materials to decorate the cookies from Cocorò Home. Below are non-affiliated links.
Pearlescent Powder (available only in gold) or food coloring palette.
The shortbread recipe is always the frollizzi that comes with the molds.
