The #1 Vacation Cookie My Mates and Household Request 12 months After 12 months

Each vacation season I give out cookie packing containers to my family and friends. Every field incorporates 5 or 6 totally different cookies, and whereas it’s arduous to whittle it right down to my favourite few, I virtually at all times embrace a shortbread cookie. Shortbread is ideal for gifting, because it usually retains nicely for a number of days.

I like to decorate my shortbread cookies up just a little with darkish brown sugar and a shiny sugar-coated exterior. For the previous 5 years, I’ve included this shortbread in my packing containers. They’re my superb cookies: tender, with caramel notes from brown sugar, and are simply salty sufficient. They’re at all times successful—a lot in order that my family members have began asking for the recipe. Learn on for the methods I take advantage of to make these cookies and for the complete recipe. 

The Key Methods for Making the Greatest Brown Sugar Shortbread

For shortbread that stays moister and more energizing for longer, use brown sugar.

Shortbread is usually made with simply butter, granulated sugar, flour, and salt. Whereas classic shortbread cookies are scrumptious, their simplicity additionally means they’re nice for riffs. In my recipe under, I swap granulated sugar for darkish brown sugar, which not solely provides a deep butterscotch taste, but in addition makes for a softer cookie. Brown sugar incorporates molasses; the thick syrup is hygroscopic—which suggests it attracts moisture to itself—so these cookies keep recent and moist for days.

Incorporate baking soda. This recipe incorporates baking soda, which isn’t usually present in shortbread. Right here, baking soda reacts with the mildly acidic brown sugar, giving the cookies a delicate carry for a shortbread that’s lighter and extra tender than the typical shortbread. 

Roll the logs tightly. The most effective factor in regards to the slice-and-bake methodology is that it doesn’t require any particular tools for shaping the cookies. There’s no want for a rolling pin or cookie scoop—you simply must kind the dough into two logs, wrap every tightly in plastic wrap, then refrigerate it. 

Slice-and-bake cookies can find yourself crumbly if the logs aren’t shaped appropriately, although, so the important thing to stopping your cookies from falling aside is to make sure the dough is rolled as densely as potential earlier than you wrap it tightly in plastic. For the roundest potential cookies, roll every log of dough back-and-forth to even out the form as soon as they’re wrapped—the plastic will assist maintain the whole lot in place. 

(If you need actually uniform, completely spherical cookies, you may as well roll the dough out between two items of parchment till it’s a half-inch thick, chill it till agency, then use a spherical cutter to stamp out as many cookies as potential. It’s a way many pastry cooks use when making shortbread cookies, however because it’s barely fussier, it’s not one I take advantage of in my recipe.)

Add some sparkle and crunch with sugar. As soon as the dough has chilled, all that’s left to do is slice the logs into half-inch thick rounds with a pointy knife, coat the cookies in sugar, and bake. Whereas it isn’t important, coating the cookies in granulated sugar earlier than baking provides them a shiny, crispy exterior. I additionally wish to sprinkle every cookie with a pinch of flaky salt for just a little pop of savoriness.  

The fantastic thing about these little cookies lies of their simplicity. They’re straightforward to make, require only some components, and have a wealthy, butterscotch-y taste. Whereas these cookies are a staple of my vacation cookie packing containers, they’re actually great any time of yr—whether or not as a present or to take pleasure in your self together with a sizzling cup of espresso or tea.

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