Shortbread Cookies 奶油(牛油)酥餅

Shortbread cookies

Ingredients:

22 large cookies

2 cups (260 g of flour)

1 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

Royal Icing:  

1 egg white

Up to 2 cups sifted icing sugar 

1tsp lemon juice

Directions:

1.    Cream the butter until smooth. Cream with the sugar and salt until incorporated.

2.    Add vanilla extract and gradually incorporate all the flour.

3.    Once you get a dough, gather it into a disc shape and cover with saran wrap. Chuck it into the fridge for about an hour until it’s cold and firm. Better this than soft and squishy or else the dough will stick to the rolling pin. 

4.    Once it’s cold, start rolling it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about half a centimetre. Really however thick you want them to be really. They’ll be softer if they’re thicker.

5.    Cut out your shapes with a cookie cutter/pastry cutter/etc.

6.    Pop them in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes so that the cookies will keep their shape when they’re in the oven. Put the uncut dough in the fridge too because it’s easier to work with when it’s cold.

7.    Preheat oven to 325F

8.    While those are chilling, mix up the icing. Add whatever food colouring you want, and put that in a ziploc bag or piping back and put it in the fridge to chill. 

9.    Bake the chilled cookies for about 15-17 minutes or until you see one of the bottoms of the cookies start to brown. Take them out and let them cool on the pan (they’ll break if you take them off before they’re coolish to touch).

Alternate way in making Royal Icing by using Meringue powder:

Makes 3 cups of icing.

Ingredients:

·         3 tablespoons Meringue Powder

·         4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar

·         6 tablespoons warm water

Instructions:

step 1

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

step 2

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

**When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.