RECIPE: Made these yesterday: REC: Whole Wheat Shortbread -- simply delicious.

RECIPE:

mimi

Well-known member
I made these yesterday and have been enjoying their simple goodness. I used the "designer butter" as suggested and wow, you could really taste it. It was the first time I've ever splurged on that fancy butter. For shortbread and things, I doubt I'll ever go back now!

Whole Wheat Shortbread

Makes 2 dozen cookies

These simple "digestives," as the English call them, are the perfect way to round out a holiday meal or say thanks to the host of a family gathering. With only three main ingredients, it is important that each one be at its peak. Don't count on last year's unfinished bag of whole-wheat flour to taste fresh anymore, and splurge on some quality designer butter for maximum butter flavor. -- The Seattle Times Magazine

2 cups whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup Turbinado sugar or "Sugar in the Raw"

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted imported or "European-style" butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with baker's parchment.

2. Put the whole-wheat flour, the raw sugar and the salt in the work bowl of a food processor and process briefly just to blend. If you don't own a food processor, stir the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

3. Cut the butter into half-inch bits and add them to the flour mixture. Process, pulsing the motor on and off until the mixture comes together to form a crumbly dough. If you're working without a food processor, use a pastry cutter or your fingers to press the butter into the flour. Shape the dough into two logs, each about 6 inches long, and slice the logs into half-inch slices.

4. Bake the slices for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely before storing in airtight containers. The cookies keep for up to one week, but are best eaten a day or two after they are baked.

My notes: The Turbinado sugar game them an extra crunch. The addition of Kosher salt was interesting. Instead of tiny grains being evenly distributed throughout the dough, when you took a bite of cookie you'd occasionally get these little bursts of the gentle saltiness of the Kosher salt. I thought it was a little bit strange, but actually I quite liked it. If that doesn't appeal to you I'm sure you could just substitute regular table salt. I found it difficult to slice the cookies while the dough was soft because the dough would flatten and I'd end up with an oval instead of a circle. It was no big deal to gently shape each cookie back into a round shape with my fingers, but I chilled the second log and had better luck slicing it like an icebox cookie.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/1130/taste.html

 
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