My roomies and I hosted a Valentine making party last night, complete with pink cookies and sparkling wine. So girly, so fun. C. had made this shortbread cookie recipe before, making the lemon and rosemary variation (addictive). But for our Valentine party, we made strawberry window shortbreads.
Now, please note that this recipe makes very little sense and requires a lot of modifications. Also note that the pictures here do not represent the correct way to make the cookies, because I, um, didn't read the recipe all the way through.
Traditional shortbread dough is very dry and is not meant to be rolled out into 1/8" thickness. We added milk until the dough came together and was rollable. And the cookies are meant to be baked and then assembled, not completely assembled and then baked, like I first assumed.
Strawberry Window Shortbreads
From Sunset Magazine
2 cups flour
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons coarse sugar
Strawberry preserves
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix flour, butter, granulated sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer on low speed until just blended. Increase speed until dough is no longer crumbly and just comes together.
Form dough into a disk and chill 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough 1/8" thick. Use a selection of 1 1/2-inch decorative cutters to cut as many shapes as you can, making sure you have an equal number of each shape to form a top and a bottom, and rerolling scraps as needed. Use a variety of smaller cutters to remove center from half of cookies (the tops). Arrange cookies 1 inch apart on baking sheets.
Chill on sheets 15 minutes; then bake until light golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool. Spread each whole cookie with about 1/2 teaspoon strawberry (or raspberry) preserves. Sprinkle coarse sugar over cut-out cookie tops, or glaze them with a mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 1/2 tablespoons milk. Set tops on jam-topped bottoms.
Makes 26.
