Well it is that time of year…holiday season and that means Shortbread cookies! Traditional Shortbread is my absolute favourite cookie. The recipe lends itself to versatility. In my opinion for traditional shortbread you can use whatever type of sugar strikes your fancy. For this particular batch I had the luxury of using maple sugar. Maple sugar is made from pure maple syrup. All of the water is removed and tah dah you have maple sugar! This maple sugar is from a local sugar bush called Sucrerie Seguin in the little northern hamlet of Lavigne.
Once the lid is removed from the package the aroma of maple syrup is overwhelming. Once you blend it into the butter it gets even better. Then when the dough hits the heat of the oven the fragrance will melt your heart! If you aren’t lucky enough to have access to maple sugar in your home town, then you can substitute brown sugar. It won’t have the same lovely aroma, but it will still have depth of flavour.
To make the actual traditional shortbread you would use icing sugar instead of brown sugar. This will make a cookie that just melts in your mouth. For the best flavour I find it best to make the dough and let it age in the fridge for at least 24 hours or up to 1 week. It is easiest to mould the dough into a log and square it up. This makes it easier to store in the fridge and the square shape is easier to maintain when slicing. Before baking if you want to fancy the cookies up for your holiday treat trays – add some sprinkles or as my mother always did, a little piece of candied cherry. Once baked shortbread will keep for weeks in a tin. Use a tin and not plastic, for some reason it just keeps the cookies better and they will taste even better with time.
And our course the best accompaniment to shortbread is a cup o’ tea. English breakfast tea is my favourite, but this time of year a cup of pumpkin spice tea works well too and goes fantastic with the maple! So there are just a few weeks until Christmas so this is the best recipe to make ahead. You can bake and freeze these, but I am warning you – they taste amazing frozen! Hide them well!
- 1 cup butter,room temp
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup sugar- your choice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Cream butter for about 2 minutes, just until smooth.
- Add sugar and beat for about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
- Sift together flour and salt.
- Add all at once to butter mixture. Mix on low until flour is well combined.
- With a spatula mix dough manually ensuring all of the butter from the bottom of the bowl is mixed in.
- Divide dough into 2 portions.
- On a piece of plastic wrap form each portion into a log and with the plastic wrap form into a square log. Wrap tightly, twisting the ends.
- Place logs on a cookie sheet and refrigerate at least overnight or up to 1 week.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Slice each log into ¼" pieces. Place 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Prick with fork.
- Bake 10-15 minutes just until fragrant and bottom is just barely golden. Tops should not brown.
- Let rest 5 minutes on sheet after removing from oven, before sliding onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store in a cookie tin. Will keep well for a few weeks at room temp or freeze for up to 2 months.