My quest for coming up with State Fair baking entries continues. I need to pick up the pace and get serious about testing things out, with the deadline for registration looming at the end of this month. I decided to try out two variations on shortbread in one small-batch go the other day, since my family was all in town and are willing taste testers.
It’s hard to say how the shortbread category will be judged. Obviously, they want the shortbread to be good and to be short. But, how will they react to unique flavors? How does that play in to their decision? I decided I would keep it simple, but… how simple? So I tried out making some almond shortbread with chocolate drizzle, and some classic, slightly elevated shortbread.
I pretty much immediately ruled out the chocolate drizzle for any flavor I end up with – I’m not sure it adds much, and it may just get messed up amidst all the transporting. Once I drop off my bakes, I don’t know what will happen to them, so I think they should be as basic as possible. It also just takes focus away from the shortbread!
In terms of flavor, almond shortbread is a classic, but my family really liked the basic shortbread. The secret ingredient was Dolce Foglia Butter Vanilla Extract, which I can no longer seem to find on the internet! They’ve got butter and they’ve got vanilla, but they don’t have butter vanilla anymore. This extract was a key ingredient in the Savannah Buttermint Ice Cream I made last year, and I’ve been looking for reasons to use it. But maybe I should be rationing it more? There’s other butter vanilla extracts out there, but I can’t technically vouch for them (although I’m sure they’re identical).
Adding that extract made the flavor of the shortbread just a bit more interesting, but without throwing anything crazy at it. I may just end up doing that for the shortbread category… Although I have a few more ideas for unique flavors that are just too tempting to try.
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PinIngredients
- 1 stick butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp almond extract or butter vanilla extract
- (optional) 1/4 cup chocolate chips + 1 tsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 and line an 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
- With the butter at room temperature, gently beat together the butter with the sugar and extract. Don’t overmix.
- Add in the flour and salt and gently keep mixing it together. It may start to look crumbly, and then you can just start squeezing it together with your hands. Don’t overwork it, just smoosh it together to form a dough.
- Put the dough into the prepared pan and use your hands to spread it out all the way to the corners and make it as flat as possible. Use a fork to prick holes in the dough in straight lines
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the shortbread is just starting to turn golden brown at the edges, it will still be very pale on top. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan. But for clean slices, try to cut your shortbread while it is still slightly warm (after about 10-15 minutes).
- If desired, once the shortbread is cool and cut, melt the chocolate and coconut oil and drizzle over the top of the cookies.