Has anyone made Cook's Illustrated *The Best Shortbread* from Nov-Dec 2009?

M

marilynfl

Moderator
This along with a jar of lemon curd are going into a gift basket and so I decided to play it safe and use their recipe.

The very FIRST STEP is messing with me. You are to pulse 1/2 C of old-fashion oats to a flour. Okay.

But then THEIR text says you should end up with 1/4 to 1/3 C of oat flour.

I ended up with 2/3 C of ground oat flour.

So...do I just add all of it? Or only add 1/3 C of the ground flour? It's twice the amount they say and I don't want to waste imported French butter on a recipe that will get screwed up by...me.

On the other hand, if they hadn't added that extra line, I'd have just added the original 1/2 C of oats, ground.

Why am I so anal-retentive? It's a curse.

 
Maybe weigh the oats and after pulsing add that weight if it is different? Could be

a difference in the brand of oats and how they are "rolled".

 
Best Shortbread recipe from Nov, 2009

After reading through the recipe (below) and also watching the video GayR posted, I would measure out 1/2 cup of the old-fashioned oats BEFORE pulsing and then put the entire pulsed amount into the bowl to use in the recipe. wigs

“Best” Shortbread
from Cook’s Illustrated, November 2009

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices

Preheat oven to 450 F. Place the collar of a 9-inch springform pan upside down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (The groove of the collar should be at the top.)

Pulse the oats in a mini prep or food processor until reduced to fine powder, about ten 5-second pulses. In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix ground oats, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the butter to the mixer and continue to mix on low speed until dough just forms and pulls away from sides of bowl, 5 to 10 minutes.

Press the dough into the springform collar in an even 1/2-inch-thick layer, smoothing top of dough with back of spoon. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut a hole in the center of the dough. Place the round alongside springform collar on baking sheet and place the biscuit cutter back into the hole in the center of the dough. Open the springform collar all the way, but leave it in place around the dough.

Bake the shortbread 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250 F. Continue to bake the shortbread until the edges turn pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove baking sheet from oven and turn off oven. Remove the biscuit cutter and springform pan collar; use a chef’s knife to score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread. Using a wooden skewer, poke 8 to 10 holes in each wedge. Return the shortbread to the oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon. Allow the shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center, about 1 hour.

Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool the shortbread to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Cut shortbread at scored marks to separate.

http://traceysculinaryadventures.com/2009/12/best-shortbread.html

 
I am going to try this one Marilyn because the oats are intriguing, but here is my standard:

I use a shortbread mold:

Classic Shortbread
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar (unsifted)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour (unsifted)

Using the back of a large spoon, cream the butter until it is light. Cream in the powered sugar, then the vanilla. Now work in the flour. Knead the dough on an unfloured board until nice and smooth. Spray the shortbread pan very lightly with a non-stick vegetable oil spray. Put the ball of dough in the middle of the pan, and working out from the center, firmly press the dough into the pan. Prick the entire surface with a fork, and bake the shortbread right in the pan at 325 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, or until it is lightly browned. Be sure that the middle is thoroughly cooked and doesn't look slightly opaque or the shortbread might stick in the pan.

Let the shortbread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before you loosen the edges with a knife and flip the pan over onto a wood cutting board. If the shortbread does not come right out, hold the pan upside down over the cutting board and firmly tap one edge of the pan against the board. This should loosen the shortbread and it should drop out. Cut the shortbread into serving pieces while it is still warm.

 
Had the version with rasp jam between 2 layers...fabulous. Going to try this very interesting method

for poker night next week.

 
My mom passed on a similar recipe (without the grating) 45 years ago

just uses 1.5 cups of sugar and 3.5 flour and no leavening agent. Must say it is delish:)

 
Hi everyone and thanks. Here's my review: Don't bother with this one.

Since I needed to finish this in order to build up the basket, I watched GayR's video and felt more confident because my dough looked exactly like their dough. The magazine article stated their original cookie test (using 3/4 C of oats) was too much and so they cut it down to 1/2 Cup. Okay, but it was this text in the magazine that screwed with me: "Pulse oats in spice grinder or blender until reduced to fine powder, about ten 5-second pulses (you should have 1/4 to 1/3 C oat flour)." After pulsing 1/2 C of oats, I had 2/3 C of oat flour, twice their stated amount. I used ALL of the pulsed oats except for 2 TBL.

When it was cool, I packaged the pieces along with the lemon curd, gave it away today and only now tasted the 2" center circle.

Oh boy...This is BORING SHORTBREAD. I would NOT recommend CI's recipe. Do not waste 14 TBL worth of grief for your thighs on this shortbread. There are other recipes out there better than this...I just got sucked into the CI vortex of "The Best...whatever." It is also very dense. Thank goodness I gave them a jar of my lemon curd. I KNOW that's good and maybe its acidic jolt will mask the otherwise boring-ness of this.

I've never had Laurie Colwin's shortbread spread much so all the extra work to use CI's recommended springform pan was just that...extra.

Shortbread Taste: It's bland, not sweet at all and I thought the bottom was overly brown, adding a note of bitterness to the overall profile. I used President Unsalted butter rather than my plain old Trader Joe favorite. It was twice the price and did not make the cookie any tastier.

Here's an image before I baked it:

PS: I just now wondered if using the European butter was the wrong move? It has less water than American butter (which has 15%) and maybe that was why mine was so dense?? CI, WHY would you not provide details like that in a critical analysis of a recipe that is typically only three ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, period)!

https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/swap-photos/shortbread.jpg

 
Hmmm, don't know what kind of butter you used, but maybe it was the butter? . . .

Short bread is all about texture AND butter. Gotta have a shortbread texture. Gotta have GOOD butter flavor.

I always use salted butter, the freshest I can get it I am using standard American grocery store butter. When I am feeling profligate I get a cultured butter (fermented butter) that is aromatically flagrantly smelling of rich butter (the culture provided this extra hit of flavor/smell). And I buy a SALTED cultured butter; salt is so important for flavor in short bread, IMHO.

I personally would tend to tamp that powdered sugar down a bit for tad more sweetness. And I do like a more sandy shortbread at times and like to use regular sugar or fine granular sugar for short bread.

So did you use unsalted or salted butter? Just wondering.

 
Oh, Marg sorry to hear of your Kidney Stones.....please recover quickly DH has had them and

on two different occasions and it is very painful. You are in my thoughts.

 
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