Irish Butter Shortbread

One more St. Patty's Day goodie for your festivities tomorrow.
























These are simple, buttery crisp shortbreads. They practically melt in your mouth. They aren't your most flavorful cookie, but I liked em! I've always been a shortbread kinda girl.

What can I say, I love butter.

























And it only takes 3 ingredients to make: Irish butter (I used Kerrygold), sugar, and flour. I found some Irish butter at my local grocery story in the fancy cheese section, but you may have to go to a specialty store... I hope not though! The 3 ingredients kinda tricked me into thinking these would be so easy to make. They weren't, for me at least. I busted out my Kitchenaid mixer for the first time ever to make the dough! Then used my new rolling pin to flatten out the dough. I think next time I'll try chilling the dough before rolling it because it kept sticking to the rolling pin, even with some flour dusting. With time, I'll learn to perfect making and rolling dough.

Someone said these should be the same color going in as coming out of the oven. Mine were definitely more golden brown, so maybe try cooking them for less than the 30 minutes and check on their doneness. I just cooked mine the whole 30 minutes, but still thought they turned out good even with their golden brown crispness. 

 























Irish Butter Shortbread
from Rachel Gaffney 

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) Irish unsalted butter, softened (you can sit it out at room temp for 15 minutes)
• 1/4 cup + 1/2 tablespoon sugar, divided
• 1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. With the mixer on low, slowly add flour. Continue mixing until dough comes together to form a ball. 

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface; roll out dough to about 1/8 or 1/4-inch thickness, dusting rolling pin with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Using a 2 1/2-inch round fluted cutter, cut out dough. Transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1 inch apart. Gather up any scraps, gently re-roll, and repeat cutting process. Take care not to overwork dough.

Transfer baking sheet to oven and bake until shortbread just begins to turn golden, about 30 minutes but you may want to check on it after 20 minutes or so. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Shortbread may be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
  
Printable Recipe

Oh, and if you're looking for a fluted cutter, I bought a biscuit cutter at Sur La Table, my favorite store in the world. Mine was more like 2.5 inches wide, and I made half the recipe. The original recipe yields about 3 dozen, so half the recipe is about 18 cookies but I got more like 15 or 16 cookies. The recipe below reflects the amount I made, but double the ingredient amounts to yield about 3 dozen if you want more.

What you guys doing for St. Patty's Day? Getting your drink on? I'm actually happy it's on a Sunday, it really concerned me to see people at the bars at 7 AM on weekdays the past couple years. Did they seriously take off work? And who drinks at 7 AM? 

That should only be allowed on weekends :)

Happy St. Patty's Day, peeps!

I'll be watching my man GEORGES ST. PIERRE whoop up on Nick Diaz tonight. That's the highlight of my weekend. OBSESSED!!!!


Peace, and bacon grease!