Shortbread Cookies with Rosemary.

[donna]

Have several Shortbread recipes on the Food Forum. Found this one and readapted it for use.

4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 pound butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and rosemary. Cut butter into cubes and add and knead dough until it becomes size of fine crumbs.

Grease brownie size pan. Pour in mixture. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cut into squares.
Then let cookies cool and remove from pan.

Serve with afternoon tea. You can cut up some fruit like orange slices or peaches to accompany the cookies.

 

[donna]

It is Shortbread Day, Jan. 6th. It is always so delicious. For Christmas a friend gave me Chocolate Scottie Dog Shortbread. They are made by Walker. They are so good.

 

[Shalom Hobbitess]

I have yet to find a shortbread cookie I didn't like, but fresh rosemary might be pushing it. Although I do love rosemary...

Haven't had any Walker's shortbread, but I've heard it's good for boughten. I like boughten shortbread, but I have to say homemade shortbread always has a bit of an edge for me.

When my extended family gets together for Christmas (every other year), my sister brings biscochitos a co-worker makes (biscochitos are the official cookie of New Mexico). Her recipe includes lard, a bit of anise, and a lot of cinnamon sugar, and they are spectacular -- and also a form of shortbread, I'm thinking, although they're thicker than any of the shortbread I make.

 

[donna]

Another shortbread recipe I found uses ginger. The ginger gives the shortbread a spicy taste.

Ginger Shortbread

2 cups flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
dash of salt
2 sticks butter, softened

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine flour, brown sugar, ginger and salt. Mix until well blended. Add butter and mix more. Turn out dough.

Pat dough into ungreased 9 inch tart pan or springform with removable bottom. Press tines of fork around edge to form a decorative border. Pierce dough every 2 inches with fork.

Bake 1 hour . Remove sides of pan and score into thin wedges while still warm. Let cool in pan before cutting and serving. You can store in airtight container for 5 days.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

As a huge fan of gingerbread, the ginger shortbread is very appealing. Despite having never made shortbread this might push me over the edge to give it a whirl. Thanks for sharing it @donna

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

As a fan of the books and TV show Outlander, shortbread is mentioned in the books but I recently discovered 18th century shortbread was very different than what we enjoy today. Originally it was made from the remnants of bread dough (hence shortbread!) and contained oatmeal (a Scottish staple) along with yeast. It was sprinkled with a little sugar and slow baked in a cool oven. This shortbread was a dry, hard biscuit, which was great for a traveling snack as it lasted a while and journeyed well. The original variation sounds a little like a cross between a cracker and a hard oatmeal cookie to me

 

[donna]

I have made shortbread and shortbread cookies. I just bumped a shortbread cookie recipe from Robert P. You should give it a try too.

 

[Shalom Hobbitess]

I recently discovered 18th century shortbread was very different than what we enjoy today.

Interesting. I've read the first Outlander novel (years back), but somehow I thought it was set further back than then. Pretty sure shortbread was much closer to what we know by the mid-19th century, or at least I think I've seen shortbread recipes in cookbooks from then that sounded pretty familiar.

I do make oatmeal shortbread, which I like very much, but it's definitely a sweet cookie; no yeast and not a hard biscuit. If you've made pie crust, shortbread cookies are dead easy.