Chocolate Shortbread

I have been wanting to try out another version of shortbread recipe that uses rice flour. Inspired by my colleague’s Lavendar Shortbread. I found the receipe from Dessert First. Below is my adaptation. I decided to add some cocoa powder. Probably due to the cocoa powder, it is not sweet enough. More fine-tuning on the taste. But the texture is quite good, it is very “loose”, melt-in-the-mouth type. This is still not the taste that I wanted to get.

Will make another attempt after my exams. TodayI have baked some scones and muah chee as well. Maybe this is my last bakes till exams finished?

Ingredients

113g butter, softened
1 cups flour (replace with 1 tbsp of rice flour)
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Sift the flour.
Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until creamy.
Add the flours and cocoa powder and beat until combined.

Wrap the dough and roll out to about 1/4″ thickness and chill until firm, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 165C degrees.

Remove from fridge and cut desired shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake until just golden, about 18 minutes.

Shortbread Cookies

This recipe is taken from Aunty Yochana. The sweetness is just nice, hence do not need to reduce the sugar. But I find that it is a little too flaky, didn’t really achieve those melt-in-your-mouth texture. Perhaps, I will try reducing the rice flour next time.

Ingredients:

120 gm. Plain flour
60 gm. Rice flour
60 gm. castor sugar
120 gm. SCS Butter (rroom temperature)
1 tsp. Vanilla Essence
1 Tbsp. fine sugar – for sprinkling

I have added about 1 tbsp of chopped rosebud tea leaves for the fragrance. And also did another portion using my all time favorite cranberry. (optional)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together. Do not overwork your dough. Knead lightly only and the lesser you knead, the flakier the shortbread becomes. Make into small balls and press with a cookie stamp. Sprinkle some fine sugar on top.

Bake at 160C for about 15 mins. Cookies should be pale colour after baking.

Cranberry shortbread hearts

This is one of the first successful recipes that I tried when I just started baking. It is very very easy to make and very nice too. Except that its seems to be a be wasteful after cutting out the heart and left with those crumbs. I like shortbread lah. It’s a little powdery kind of taste and have a refreshing cranberry taste. Love it so much. =) Must try ya!

Dried-Cranberry Shortbread Hearts
Source: She bakes and she cooks

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit (170 degrees Celsius) with rack in center.
Put butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt in large mixing bowl.
Stir together with a wooden spoon until combined but not to creamy. Stir in dried cranberries
Press dough evenly into an 8-inch square baking pan.
Bake until firm and pale golden, about 30 minutes.
Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes. Run a knife around edges; remove shortbread, and transfer, right side up, to work surface.
Cut out hearts with a 2 inch heart-shape cookie cutter. Trim any stray bits of cranberry from edges with a paring knife. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.