Teatime Shortbread - Bon Appetit
Submitted by JAnnMcGhee
Classic 4-ingredient butter shortbread with a sandy, melt-in-your-mouth crumb. Just butter, sugar, flour, and salt baked to pale gold. The quintessential teatime cookie from Bon Appetit, ready in 30 minutes.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
15 minREADY
30 minFour ingredients. That’s the entire secret behind the most elegant cookie you’ll ever bake.
This Bon Appetit shortbread is pure simplicity: room-temperature butter beaten with sugar, then gently worked with flour and salt until a soft, sandy dough comes together under your fingertips.
No eggs. No leavening. No vanilla. Just butter doing what butter does best.
The result? Pale golden rounds that shatter at the first bite and dissolve on your tongue in a wave of rich, buttery sweetness.
Chef Tips
- Use the best unsalted butter you can find. In a recipe this simple, butter quality IS the flavor.
- Don’t overwork the dough. Use your fingertips to rub it into moist clumps, then gently press it together. Tough shortbread comes from heavy handling.
- Pierce each cookie with a fork before baking. This isn’t just decorative; it prevents the shortbread from puffing up unevenly.
- Pull them from the oven when they’re pale golden, not brown. Shortbread should whisper, not shout.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 325℉ (160℃).
Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in bowl until well combined.
Sift flour and salt into butter mixture.
Using fingertips, rub mixture until moist clumps form.
Gently knead until soft dough forms.
Divide dough in half.
Press out 1 dough piece to 9½-inch round, about ¼ inch thick.
Roll lightly with rolling pin to smooth top.
Using 3-inch-diameter cookie cutter, cut out 8 cookies.
Reserve scraps.
Repeat pressing, rolling and cutting with remaining dough piece.
Gather dough scraps together.
Press out dough scraps to form round and cut out additional cookies.
Arrange cookies on 2 large baking sheets.
Pierce each cookie several times with fork.
Bake until pale golden, about 12 minutes.
Cool slightly.
Transfer cookies to racks; cool completely.
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