ISO: ISO: Coconut Shortbread... I have a question. I found this recipe online but...

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cheezz

Well-known member
It looks like it makes about 4 cookies!! Here is the recipe with what I *think* are the conversions in brackets. Does this look right to everyone?

Thanks!

Coconut Shortbread cookies

http://peachesanddonuts.blogspot.com/2011/10/coconut-shortbread-cookies.html

Ingredients (make around 24 2.5cm (1") cookies)

125g butter (8.75 Tbl)

55g caster sugar (.28 cup)

120g plain flour (1.2 cups)

60g Desiccated Coconut (.79 cup)

Method

1. Beat the butter and the sugar together until pale.

2. Stir in the flour and coconut to get a smooth paste. Turn on to a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is 1cm thick (1/3" ?).

3. Cut into rounds or fingers and sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar. Put on a baking sheet and chill for 20 minutes.

4. Heat then oven to 190C (375 deg)

5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

http://peachesanddonuts.blogspot.com/2011/10/coconut-shortbread-cookies.html

 
Cheezz, I think your conversions are off slightly...

The density of the ingredient affects the conversion. I did this using the calculator in the link. (The one I used to use professionally is no longer around--sad, because it was great.)

125 g butter = 8.75 Tbsp.
55 g castor sugar = .28 cup
120 g flour = 1.2 cups
60 g coconut = .79 cup

It doesn't make a ton of shortbread, but it's rolled very, very thinly. Sorry to have given a couple of the ingredients in cups, but it helps me visualize the size of the final yield--I think it makes more than four cookies, but 24 one-inch cookies might be a stretch unless you roll it as thinly as suggested. Fifteen to twenty minutes sounds like a long time for a cookie that thin (or maybe it's just my temperamental oven I'm thinking of).

http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

 
Thanks Erin - I see the flour was way off! But how do I measure .28 cup and .79 cup?!

The cookies in the picture look about 1/2" thick - hard to believe they would puff up that much as they don't have any rising agent and I've never known a shortbread to rise anyway.

 
I didn't estimate like this as a cookbook editor, but .28 cup = ~1/4 c., .79 c. = ~3/4 c. smileys/smile.gif

 
I ended up altering my favorite recipe: Cooks Illustrated's Buttery Shortbread

My hubby and girlfriend were practically drooling on themselves, saying this was the best thing they had ever eaten - and DH doesnt even like shortbread. So it was a complete success smileys/smile.gif

The changes I made for coconut shortbread:
Decrease ap flour to 1-1/3 cup
Added rounded 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut powder
Sprinkled top of shortbread with a couple tbl unsweetened shredded coconut before it is returned to oven for the last 40 min.

Be aware that it spreads about 4" and the finished shortbread is about 1/4" thick.



BUTTERY SHORTBREAD

Makes 16 wedges.   Cook's Illistrated, Published November 1, 2001.  

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Our approachable shortbread recipe gives a few tweaks to the classic method, resulting in the ultimate version of the sandy, sweet, buttery cookie. We made our shortbread recipe more tender by adding rice flour or cornstarch to the mix. Our light handling when mixing and shaping the dough also made a difference. Our final trick: stamping out a small circle of dough from the center to ensure even baking.

If you cannot find rice flour, substitute an equal amount of cornstarch; the texture of the shortbread will be slightly affected with a faint chalkiness that dissipates with cooling and over the course of storage. When cutting the butter into cubes, work quickly so that the butter stays cold, and when molding the shortbread, form, press, and unmold it without delay. Be sure to use a plain round biscuit cutter to stamp out the center, not a fluted cutter.


INGREDIENTS
1 3/4cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8.75 ounces), preferably Gold Medal or Pillsbury, protein content no higher than 10.5 percent
1/4cup rice flour (1.3 ounces)
2/3cup superfine sugar (4.8 ounces)
1/4teaspoon table salt
16tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), cold

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line ungreased 9-inch round cake pan with parchment round; set aside.

2. In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flours, all but 1 tablespoon sugar (reserve for sprinkling), and salt at low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Cut butter into 1/2-inch cubes with 1/4 cup flour mixture on a sheet of parchment paper. Add butter and any remaining flour on parchment to bowl with dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until dough is pale yellow and resembles damp crumbs, about 4 minutes.

3. Remove bowl from mixer and toss mixture lightly with fingers to fluff and loosen; rub any remaining butter bits into flour mixture with fingertips. Follow illustrations 1 through 5 to form and unmold shortbread. Place shortbread in oven; immediately reduce temperature to 300 degrees. Bake 20 minutes; remove baking sheet from oven and follow illustration 6 to score and pierce shortbread. Return shortbread to oven and continue to bake until pale golden, about 40 minutes longer. Slide parchment with shortbread onto cutting board, remove cutter from center, sprinkle shortbread evenly with reserved 1 tablespoon sugar, and cut at scored marks into wedges. Slide parchment with shortbread onto wire rack and cool to room temperature, at least 3 hours. (Can be wrapped well and stored at room temperature up to 7 days.)

 
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