Irish Shortbread
Hi Barb--
Irish shortbread is really just a substitution of cornstarch for about 1/4 -1/3 of the flour you would normally use in a recipe. Otherwise it is just butter, powdered sugar and flour.
It does give a different texture. Less crunchy, more like a pastry. It was a nice variation.
The Irish secret ingredient
It might also work well where shortbread is the base of a recipe. I often find that they are hard to cut, and the knife just slides through the cornstarch version. "
The recipe I used was from Just a Pinch recipes by Laura Broyles. https://www.justapinch.com/
But when I was looking for a recipe I noticed that the ratio varied between flour and cornstarch. Here it is 2:1. But I think you could do a little less; 3:1.
I have noticed that when I make shortbread that uses cocoa, the texture really changes and is softer. I’m guessing it is because cocoa powder acts much like the cornstarch and absorbs more moisture.
When I made this recipe I used a large 11 x 16 pan and spread out the dough evenly. It took about 18-20 minutes to bake.
If you used a smaller pan (9x13) you would need to increase the baking time. The recipe describes making round dough balls but doesn’t specify the size. Then she notes that she used a 10 x3 pan and baked for 25 minutes, but that seems like a misprint to me.
One, I don’t know anyone who has a 10x3 pan, and even if you did, I don’t think the dough would bake through in 25 minutes as it would be so thick. I based my baking time on other shortbread that I have made. You just need to check as you go and not let the shortbread get too brown. Mine was just beginning to turn brown at the edges, but remained pale in the center.
Be sure to use salted butter. If you don’t have, add a little bit of salt to the dough. Also, when I took the pan out to cool, I let it sit about 20-25 minutes and then cut the shortbread while still warm with a sharp knife.
I also sprinkled the top with sanding sugar before baking. You can use colored sanding sugar to make the cookies match a holiday theme.
I suppose you could also roll the dough and do cut outs, but I find that to be very time consuming as you generally need to refrigerate your dough prior to rolling and then again after you’ve cut out the cookies so they don’t spread too much while baking. With this dough I just mixed it up and pressed it into the pan and baked.
Ready, set, BAAAAAAKE! (I miss Mel!)
---Colleen