Rustic Shortbread

Before I post this week's offering, let me explain where I've been.

For the past month, I've been in San Diego helping my sister and brother with our Mom's care as she was under going chemo treatments for cancer.  Mom had a rough time with the regimen and was quite sick throughout.  I extended my stay for an additional 2 weeks, coming home in the middle of May.

Now, we're preparing to head to South Carolina and a drive to Florida for an interment service for my husband's father.  To top it off, my husband--who has a deficit in his right leg from spinal surgery--fell and injured his knee.  It's been a little hectic here to say the very least.  I offer my apologies for not keeping up with the blog, but I hope you'll keep checking in or subscribe so you can follow along with me.  You've heard the saying, 'life is what happens while you're busy making other plans'?  I can most certainly attest to the truth in that statement!

Now, Rustic Shortbread!

When I was in San Diego, my sister in law, Chris, told me she loved shortbread.  What's not to love?  Rich, buttery bites of crisp cookie goodness.  The only problem I had was my mother's oven is broken!  Chris brought over her toaster oven, but I must confess that I didn't try to bake during my time at home.

Shortbread is one of the simplest recipes.  Flour, sugar, butter and a bit of salt.  No vanilla, the rich buttery flavor is front and center here.  Google shortbread and you'll find pages and pages of entries; some with rice flour, others with corn starch, some with eggs and others with an assortment of other ingredients.  I have two favorite shortbread recipes, one with the required flour, butter, salt and brown sugar and this one in which I use white sugar in place of the brown and I add ground toasted oatmeal.

The use of rice flour is to keep the gluten down in the dough, giving you a crisp, flaky cookie.  I think the rice flour causes the finished cookie to be too brittle to really enjoy.  I'm also not crazy about the taste of the rice flour, but that's personal preference on my part.  The replacement of a bit of the all purpose flour with corn starch does the same thing, and I have used that for years professionally.  But I have to say that I prefer to replace a bit of the flour with ground, toasted oatmeal.  Not that I have any proof, but I think it's probably more authentic.

Bits of processed toasted oats fleck the shortbread dough

What makes this 'rustic'?  I don't process the oats down to a fine powder.  I grind them down, but there are a few larger cut flakes.  When I make this particular recipe, I always shape them in fingers instead of the very fancy petticoat tails.  This is a cookie for a mug of coffee or tea; a little something barely sweet in the morning before lunch or with coffee after dinner.

When you think of shortbread, the first thing that comes to mind is butter.  That's why it's really important to use the best butter you can find and afford.  I used Land O Lakes in this recipe as that's readily available in my area grocery stores.  Challenge brand on the West Coast is another fine butter.  If you can find Plugra, a European style butter with a higher fat content, by all means use that.  It's also important to use unsalted butter.  When I attended culinary school, pastry chef Nick Malgieri taught us that unsalted butter is made from the highest quality cream, giving you a superior product.  I've always followed that advice and it's never failed me.

Another important tip is to freeze the butter and then grate it into the dry ingredients.  Why?  It keeps the dough cold (reducing the chances of a tough, dense cookie) and it incorporates quickly.

Grated butter

I use my food processor to grate the butter.  Can you do it by hand?  Sure can, but you will melt the butter as you hold and grate it. Work quickly.  I also grind the oatmeal in the food processor, though you can use a blender if that's what you have.  If you'd rather not leave any larger bits of oatmeal, feel free to grind it down to a fine, flour-like consistency.  As long as you have 1/4 cup, you'll be fine.   To toast the oatmeal, put the oats on a baking sheet and toast in the oven just until the begin to lightly brown, about 4-6 minutes.  Just keep an eye on them.  You can also do this stove top in a small skillet, but be very careful--they'll easily burn.

I use my mixer to incorporate the butter and flour, just to keep things cold.  Then I pull it together by hand, quickly, pat it into a rectangle and place it on my cookie sheet.  I have this handy, dandy little tart rolling pin, but you can just pat it into shape or use your regular rolling pin.  I don't add any additional flour--something the dough cold allows me to do--and when finished, I use the side of a spatula to score the dough before popping it into the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes.

These are baked in a relatively slow oven, 300°F.  I baked these for an initial 15 minutes before testing and adding another 8 minutes.  At 15 minutes, the cookies were just beginning to brown but the top was puffy but soft underneath, telling me the dough was not baked through.  

When baked, the cookies will have baked together, leaving only a hint of the lines you cut.  I use the edge of the spatula again to re-score and cut through the cookies and then let them cool on a rack before moving them.  They are delicate and can easily break when still warm. 

Finished shortbread--a light golden brown. Tender, flaky goodness.

These can be dipped in chocolate if you desire, but I like the crisp, buttery bites all by themselves.  Pure buttery goodness with a toasty, slightly salty finish.  

My sister in law, Chris, has excellent taste when it comes to cookies!

Mmmmm!

Rustic Shortbread

3/4     cup         All Purpose Flour, scoop and sweep method

1/4     cup         Ground, toasted oatmeal (a 1/3 cup whole is a bit more than 1/4 cup ground)

1/4     cup         White sugar

1/4     teaspoon  Salt -- preferably finely ground sea salt

1/2     cup         Unsalted butter, 1 stick, frozen and grated

Mix the dry ingredients together and add the grated butter.  Mix until well incorporated--it will not be dough-like.  
Squeeze the dough together, much like pulling pie dough together.  When you have a ball, shape into a rectangle, place on papered or silpat sheeted cookie sheet and roll until 1/4 inch thick.  The edges will be rough, that's okay--it's Rustic Shortbread!  With the side of a icing spatula, score the dough.  Place in freezer for 10-15 minutes.  If you want to make petticoat tails, shape into a circle, score the dough into pie shaped wedges.  You can flute the outer edge of the dough if you want to make the cookies really fancy.
While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 300°F.  Place into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Check and extend baking time if needed.  The top of the dough will lose it's shine when baked through and will not easily yield to pressure.  The sides will be a lovely, light golden brown.
Remove and cool.  While warm, re-score and cut the cookies with the side of the spatula.  Allow to cool completely before moving.  Store in an airtight container.  These can also be frozen up to 3 months.

  
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