Another Another for Your Afternoon Tea

For St. Patrick's Day this year, I decided to make some cookies that were featured on Martha Stewart's site. My boyfriend really likes simple butter cookies, sugar cookies, and all sorts of shortbreads, so I figured I could pawn them off on him if I thought they were too boring.



However, these cookies must have met a new standard in blandness because he only ate about half of them. They were buttery and that's about it. Maybe complexity is too much to ask from butter shortbread, but I wasn't really impressed. If you want a very very basic tea cookie, though, this is pretty good.



Irish Butter Shortbread
Makes 2 dozen cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. With the mixer on low, slowly add flour. Continue mixing until dough comes together to form a ball.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface; roll out dough to about 1/4-inch thickness, dusting rolling pin with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Using a 2 1/4-inch round, fluted cutter, cut out dough. Transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1 inch apart. Gather up any scraps, gently re-roll, and repeat cutting process. Take care not to overwork dough.

Transfer baking sheet to oven and bake until shortbread just begins to turn golden, about 30 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Shortbread may be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Another One for Your Afternoon Tea

The cookie book (500 Cookies) that I got this particular cookie recipe from frequently calls for superfine sugar. The book also specifies that you can make your own by putting the sugar in a food processor and blending it. Further investigation into castor sugar talked about how it only really needed to be superfine if the recipe depended on the ability of the sugar to dissolve quickly. Anyway, I usually don't have the time or foresight to blend all of my sugar before using, so I always tend to just use plain granulated sugar.



I made these butter cookies for gb, and they actually ended up being refrigerated a lot longer than recommended (about two days), due to an incident with Velveeta and hamburger buns. This ended up only making the cookies easier to slice off and the end result was creamy, buttery, and a little salty.



All in all, the cookies were very suitable for a teatime or if you're feeling creative, you could make a filling or put jam in between the cookies.



Butter Cookies
Makes 2 1/2 dozen

1 cups unsalted butter
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 teaspons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy, but not fluffy!

Add the salt and flour and mix to a smooth paste.

Shape the dough into a log about 1 1/2 inches thick, wrap in foil and refrigerate for 2 hours until the dough is firm.

When ready to bake the cookies, cut the log into 1/4-inch-thick slives. Place the slices 1 1/2 inches apart on a non-stick baking sheet or use parchment on a standard baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.