How to make Shortbread Cookies? (Perfect Treat for holidays)

• Food: Shortbread Cookies
• Writer: Lizzie Green
• Content-Type: Food Blog

These traditional shortbread cookies get a hint of citrus flavor from the addition of orange zest. You can savor them throughout the holidays or whenever you have a yearning for something sweet.

Even though I don’t do elaborate baking very frequently, I had a great time preparing and decorating these shortbread cookies. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

The lemon shortbread cookies that I created the previous year served as the inspiration for this recipe for shortbread biscuits.

Because so many people enjoy making that dish, I decided to come up with a variation that is themed more appropriately for the holiday season.

This time, I decided to cut the cookies into the shape of stars and then decorate them with orange zest and some adorable white sequin sprinkles from Supernatural.

How to Make Cookies in the Shape of Shortbread

Do you want to learn how to create cookies with shortbread? The following is what you need to do:

To begin, place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and begin to cream them together. Mix until everything is well blended after incorporating the orange zest, orange juice, flour, and salt. Mix until everything is fully integrated.

The dough must then be chilled. Form the dough into a disk, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes so that the texture may become more uniform.

After the dough has been refrigerated, roll it out on a surface that has been lightly dusted with flour or sandwich it between two sheets of parchment paper.

Take care not to roll the dough out to an extremely thin thickness at this point. Aim for a thickness of approximately one-quarter of an inch.

When you’ve flattened out the dough to the proper thickness, cut it into the shapes you choose using cookie cutters. If necessary, re-roll the dough in order to obtain as many shapes as possible from it.

After that, it’s time to get baking. After transferring the cutouts to the baking sheet that has been prepared with parchment paper, place the baking sheet in the oven.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 14 minutes, or until they have just the faintest hint of browning around the perimeters. They should be allowed to sit for two minutes on the baking sheet before being moved to wire racks to finish cooling entirely.

Advice on the Best Recipes for Shortbread Cookies

• Put the dough in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes. The dough will become less sticky and simpler to roll out as a result of this.
• After the cookies have been baked, allow them to cool for two minutes on the baking sheet before removing them. If you move them before they are ready, they will break apart. Wait a full two minutes after removing the cookies from the oven before transferring them to wire racks to finish cooling thoroughly.
• Before proceeding with the decoration, you must wait until they have totally cooled. It is tempting to begin decorating these right away, but in order to decorate your cookies properly, they need to be at room temperature first. If you don’t do that, the glaze will melt!
• Add a few drops of orange oil for an even stronger taste of orange. This step is completely voluntary. These cookies have a hint of orange taste, but it’s not very noticeable on its own. If you’d prefer a brighter orange flavor, add a little orange oil (the baking type, not the essential oil). You’ll find it in the section of the store devoted to baking, just next to the vanilla extract.

Shortbread Cookies

These shortbread biscuits, which get their subtle citrus flavor from orange zest and juice, are ideal for making during the holiday baking season.

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• ⅓ cup cane sugar
• Zest of 1 medium orange
• 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
• A few drops of orange oil, optional, for more orange flavor
• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, more for rolling
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Glaze

• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon almond milk
• sequin sprinkles, for decorating, optional
• zest of 1 orange, for garnish

Instructions

1. Prepare a large baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper and preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is fluffy. After adding the sugar, continue beating the mixture until it becomes fluffy, stopping often to scrape the sides of the bowl. After that, give everything another mix after adding the orange zest, orange juice, and orange oil, if using any of those ingredients. To finish, add the flour and salt, and mix until everything is evenly distributed. After turning the dough out onto a surface dusted with flour, flatten it into a disk measuring 1 inch in diameter. If the dough is sticky, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes, or until it is firm but still malleable.
3. On a surface dusted with flour, roll out the dough to a thickness of approximately one-quarter of an inch. You have the option of rolling the dough in between two sheets of parchment paper if you so choose. To cut out the desired shapes, use cookie cutters measuring 2 inches. Place on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to turn golden brown. Put any excess cookie cutouts that you have in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake them.
4. After removing the cookies from the oven, place them on wire racks to allow them to cool completely before applying the glaze.
5. Make the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar and almond milk in a mixing bowl and stir until combined. Drizzle the mixture over the cookies after they have cooled, and then decorate them with sprinkles and orange zest, if desired.

Notes

Please keep in mind that the number of cookies you get from this recipe could change depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use.