Lazy Homemade Shortbread

Buttery and sweet, with just the right amount of resistance before it crumbles in your mouth, this lazy shortbread shaves minutes off the more traditional method. If the word lazy offends you, just call it easy.

We make most traditional shortbread recipes by cutting cold butter into the flour creating a sort of rough and sandy crumble. But years ago, I needed a quick recipe to make big pans of shortbread for a school function and I came across this one using melted butter instead. I have since made homemade shortbread the more traditional way but I must confess that when I’m in a hurry, I go back to this lazy shortbread time and time again.

Shortbread packages up nicely and would make a special gift for Mother's Day, don't you think?

Lazy Shortbread

If you want to change it up a bit, add some orange or lemon zest to the dough and sprinkle the top with orange or lemon sugar or a little more zest.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1 cup or 130g cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Slightly rounded ½ cup or 125g caster or fine grain sugar
1⅛ cup or 250g unsalted butter

To decorate the shortbread:
1 egg white, whisked with a teaspoon of water
2-3 tablespoons coarse grain sugar (I love using my lavender sugar here.)
Optional: edible glitter

Method
Line the bottom of a small 8x8in or 20x20cm pan with baking parchment and preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in to a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar and stir to mix.

Gently melt the butter in a small pot over a low heat then pour it into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until it is well combined and you have a soft, buttery dough.

Tip the dough into your prepared pan and spread it out evenly. Use a knife to score the top into 18 equal pieces. Use a fork or a skewer to poke decorative holes in each piece.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until the shortbread is begins to brown slightly.
Remove from the oven and brush lightly with the beaten egg white.
Sprinkle the top generously with coarse sugar.

Bake for five more minutes.

Remove from the oven and lightly sprinkle with edible glitter, if using. This is purely for show but I love how it brings out the natural purple in the lavender sugar. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes.

Use a sharp knife to cut the shortbread into pieces where you scored. Leave to cool completely before removing from the pan.

Store in an airtight container once completely cooled. Or wrap some up and give it away!

Enjoy!

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Buckwheat Toffee Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Buckwheat toffee cookies are chewy, sweet and delicious. As an added bonus, if such a thing matters to you, they are naturally gluten free.

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange friends are all baking with whole grains. I chose buckwheat because it makes a hearty flour that bakes up light, despite its darker color and I just happen to have some in my freezer.

Buckwheat, despite its name, is not related to wheat at all, but comes from the same family as rhubarb, sorrel and dock. It’s the main ingredient in Japanese soba noodles and the Brittany favorite galette des sarrasin, a large filled crepe, among other regional recipes. It can also be substituted for regular flour in most recipes.

Buckwheat Toffee Cookies   

If you can’t find toffee bits for making these buckwheat toffee cookies, take a small hammer to your favorite hard toffee, like Wether’s candies.

Ingredients
1 1/8 cup or 155g buckwheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
1/2 cup or 100g brown sugar
1/4 cup or 50g white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup or 90g English toffee bits plus extra for sprinkling, if desired.

Tip: Unless you go through a bag quickly, do store any extra buckwheat flour in the freezer. This hearty grain can get stale when stored at room temperature.

Method
Measure your buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula, then add the egg and vanilla.  Blend until fully incorporated.

Add the buckwheat flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix to thoroughly combine. Fold in the toffee bits.

Shape into a log about 1 1/2" in or 13.8cm diameter and roll up in cling film. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour, or overnight so that it firms up.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and line two baking pans with baking parchment or silicone liners.

Cut the dough log into 24 even slices.

Place them evenly spaced on the lined baking pans. Do not crowd them as, even after chilling, this dough spreads out a lot. Top the circles, if desired, with more toffee bits and gentle press them down.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until the cookies puff up and look cooked, except perhaps for the very middle.

They will still be quite soft so let them cool for 10 minutes on the baking pan, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Like buckwheat? Try this great blackberry date muffin recipe also.


Check out the rest of the whole grain cookies we’ve baked up for you today. Many thanks to Holly from A Baker’s House for hosting this month.

• Amaranth Lemon Cookies from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Buckwheat Toffee Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Loaded Aussie Bites from A Baker's House
• Only Oats Cookies from What Smells So Good?
• Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffin Top Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Full of protein and fiber, baked with unrefined brown sugar, peanut butter oatmeal muffin top cookies make a great on-the-go breakfast or mid-morning snack.

I learn something new every day. When the theme of this month’s Creative Cookie Exchange was announced as Breakfast Cookies, I dutifully wrote it down in my calendar and didn’t give it another thought till last weekend. Friends were visiting from overseas and as I checked my to-do list, we discussed the upcoming challenge.

What the hell are breakfast cookies? I asked. How have I never heard of breakfast cookies? Are they a thing? I was assured that they most certainly are and that they can be purchased in supermarkets, even in Aberdeen. There, normal cookies are called biscuits and yet, they still bake and sell breakfast cookies!

I declined to look them up but decided to create my own version, a cookie that would be reasonably healthy, delicious and portable for breakfast, something akin to a muffin top. These guys are a little chewier than a muffin top, but they are still plenty cakey, as a muffin top should be.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffin Top Cookies

Five-minute oats are the middle sibling between rolled oats and quick cooking oats. If you are measuring by weight, probably either of these can be substituted, with the rolled oats probably needing a little longer time to soften in the milk.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
3/4 cup or 65g 5-minute oats
1/2 cup or 125g extra crunchy peanut butter (I prefer Jif but use your favorite.)
3/4 cup or 150g unrefined brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare your two baking sheets by lining them with baking parchment or silicone mats.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the milk and oats. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to beat the peanut butter together with the brown sugar, egg and vanilla until you have a nice homogeneous mixture.

Add in the oats and milk. Stir to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the peanut butter bowl and fold until just combined.

Spoon about 2 level tablespoons of dough, at 2 in or 4cm apart, onto your prepared cookie sheets. I like to use a two-tablespoon scoop, which makes the process so much easier.

Use the bottom of a glass dipped in water or a damp hand to press the cookies down.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in your preheated over or until the edges are lightly golden brown.

Cool for a couple of minutes and then use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. These turn out cakey and very much like a breakfast muffin top!

Enjoy!

Check out all the other breakfast cookies we are sharing today! Many thanks to Felice of All That's Left Are The Crumbs for her behind the scenes work this month.

• Brown Sugar Almond Biscotti by Queen Bee Baker
• Italian Breakfast Cookies by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffin Top Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Ricotta Lemon Cookies by Cream and Butter
• Trail Mix Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Chili Maple Bacon Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Soft on the inside and chewy on the outside, these chili maple bacon cookies are also the perfect combination of sweet, salty and spicy.

This is the cookie for your bacon-loving friend who doesn’t usually eat cookies. (Like me.) The subtle maple flavor and the fresh kick of chili from the spiked syrup balance the smokiness and salt of the bacon. But make no mistake, these are still plenty sweet enough to be called cookies.

I’m not much of a cookie eater but these guys with bacon and chili have me hooked! If you like cookies with bacon, you might also want to try my Brown Sugar Bacon Cookies or my Bacon Dark Chocolate Bourbon Cookies.

Ingredients - for 2 dozen cookies
1 lb or 450g smoked bacon, divided (11-13 thin slices)
1/4 cup or 60ml maple syrup
1 small hot red chili pepper
2/3 cup or 156ml canola or other light oil
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups or 250g flour +62g

1/4 cup or 60g turbinado or demerara sugar for rolling

Method
Mince the chili pepper finely and put it in a microwavable measuring cup or bowl with the maple syrup. Warm the syrup (about 30 seconds should do) and then leave to cool so the chili pepper flavor and heat will infuse the syrup.

Fry the bacon until crispy then drain on paper towels. Once cool, mince it finely. Divide the bacon bits into piles of about two-thirds and one-third. We’ll mix the bigger pile into the cookie dough and use the smaller one for rolling the dough balls.

Note: Once the maple syrup is cool, you can strain out the chili pepper if you’d like. I like to leave mine in.

In a mixing bowl, stir together oil, sugar, egg, maple syrup, baking soda, salt and vanilla.

Add in the bigger pile of minced bacon.

Mix well, then stir in the flour, stirring just until it is mixed in.

Refrigerate until stiff.

Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C and line two or three cookie sheets with baking parchment or silicone liners. These cookies do spread out so I baked them only six at a time.

Mix the turbinado or demarara sugar with the reserved minced bacon in a bowl.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to divide the dough into 24 pieces. Roll the dough pieces into balls and then roll in the sugar and bacon.

Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheets and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Cool on the cookie sheets then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange friends are sharing cookies with chili. Check out the great list of recipes:

• Black Pepper Romano Herb Shortbread from Cream and Butter Baking
• Chile Chocolate Coins from The Spiced Life
• Chili Maple Bacon Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Cayenne Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Ginger-Chile Caramel Cookies from All That's Left Are The Crumbs

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Ginger Lemon Sage Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

These ginger lemon sage cookies combine ground ginger, lemon and sage for bright tart bites that go perfectly with a cup of tea.

Growing up, my mom never used sage. She said it was a Texas thing and she didn’t like the flavor. I have to admit, that for the most part, I agree. I find dried sage overpowering in stuffing and breakfast sausage. The exception for me is fresh sage. To me, the herby flavor of fresh sage is not at all like dried sage.

A few months ago, at the start of our cooler winter weather here in Dubai, I planted some culinary herbs in a long, deep box outside the living room window. It gets lovely afternoon sun and as a bonus is hooked up to a drip hose on the irrigation system. In past years my basil has been eaten by something – I presumed bugs but could never find any, until one friend said she thought the culprits were birds.

So I trimmed and reshaped a mosquito net to cover the herbs and my handy husband knocked together a couple of wooden slats to attach it to. That put paid to the bird theory. The basil was still munched, but somehow from under the net. In prior years, I had cut the basil back and then the invisible bugs or snails, or whatever they were, moved on to the other herbs.

Fresh sage, anyone? 

This year, I was smarter. Let them eat the basil, I decided. At least I’ll still have parsley, chives, sage, tarragon and thyme. And so I did for a good many glorious months. But as the weather got hotter and hotter, the parsley, chives and thyme succumbed to the heat. Now I have what amounts to an enormous bunch of sage, with a smattering of tarragon.

So what else could I use for my Creative Cookie Exchange recipe when the theme of Herbs in Cookies was announced? If you aren’t a fan of dried sage, I urge you to give fresh sage a chance. And even if you think sage in a cookie is weird, do try these. The lemon and ginger are perfect partners for fresh sage with a little sweetness. All three taste marvelous in these ginger lemon sage cookies.

Ginger Lemon Sage Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup or 125g flour
1/4 cup or 35g cornstarch
2 tablespoons, minced, fresh sage leaves
Zest of small lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For decorating:
1/4 cup or 32g icing sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon water
Small fresh sage leaves

Method
In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, cornstarch, sage, lemon zest, baking powder, ginger, baking soda and salt. This takes the place of sifting your flour and helps aerate it just the same.

In the bowl of your stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl, cream your butter and sugar together until light and pale yellow.

Add in the egg, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat again until combined. This may start to look like it’s curdling. Do not be alarmed.

Add in the dry ingredients and beat until combined – just a couple of minutes - scraping the bowl down halfway through.

Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate at least an hour or until well chilled.

When your chilling time is almost up, preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and line two cookie sheets with baking parchment or silicone liners.

Use a spoon or scoop to divide the soft dough into about 21-23 cookies. I suggest making them smaller rather than bigger because they do spread out. Even this far apart, a few of mine baked together at the edges.

Bake for 9-10 minutes in your preheated oven.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate the cookies, mix the icing sugar, lemon juice and water together in a small bowl and pick or snip off the prettiest of your smaller sage leaves.

Brush the cookies, one at a time with the glaze, stick on one fresh sage leaf and brush a little more glaze on top.

Leave to dry before stacking. Store in an airtight container. These ginger lemon sage cookies are soft in the middle, almost cake-like, but chewy around the edges.

Enjoy!

If you love baking sweet treats with herbs, this is Creative Cookie Exchange event is just for you. Many thanks to our host this week, Felice, of All That’s Left Are the Crumbs.

Felice is one of my favorite bloggers, and not just because she’s one of the few who are still awake when I get up in the morning. It’s always a joy to chat with her. She’s originally from Australia but lives in gorgeous Honolulu. As well as checking out her blog for tasty dishes, follow her on Instagram for almost daily doses of tropical flowers and scenery.

Check out all the lovely cookies with herbs we’ve been baking for you.

• Anytime Tarragon-Apricot Cookies by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Citrus Glitters by What Smells So Good?
• Ginger Lemon Sage Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Thyme Wafers by Cream and Butter
• Strawberry Mint Cookies by 2 Cookin' Mamas
• Rosemary Parmesan Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Ginger Lemon Snaps with Ginger Glaze

Ginger and lemon are best mates, as the lovely Jamie Oliver would say. The warmth of the fresh ginger is enhanced in this pretty cookie by the addition of bits of crystallized ginger and a bitey ginger glaze on top and brightened beautifully by the sharp fresh lemon juice and zest.

Ginger Lemon Snaps with Ginger Glaze - Click here to print recipe

Ingredients
For two and a half dozen cookies:
3 1/2 cups or 440g flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of one medium lemon
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 small knob fresh ginger (about 1 oz or 15g after peeling)
1/3 cup or 75g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup or 200g light brown sugar
2 eggs

For decorating: About 2 oz or 60g crystallized ginger plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar to separate the sticky bits when chopped

For the ginger glaze:
2/3 cup or about 85g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch salt
1 1/2 - 3 teaspoons milk

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare your baking pan by greasing lightly or lining with parchment paper. A dab of butter or a quick shot of non-stick spray under the paper will keep it from sliding around on the pan.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, soda, salt and lemon zest.  Set aside.

Chop your crystallized ginger into little bits and put them in a small bowl with the 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar. Rub the ginger and sugar between your fingers until all the bits are coated with the sugar and no longer stick together. Set aside.

Peel and grate your fresh ginger.

With electric beaters or in your stand mixer, beat the sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. This takes just a couple of minutes.

Add in the eggs and beat again. 

Your grated ginger and lemon juice should go in now. Beat again for just a few seconds. 

Add the flour mixture in TWO lots, mixing well in between.

Scoop one tablespoon of dough out onto your prepared cookie sheet for each cookie. If you are using an actual tablespoon, you can roll them into balls and then flatten them for a more uniform appearance.

Sprinkle the top of each dough disk with crystallized ginger bits and sugar.  Press them down a little bit into the dough to stop them falling off after baking. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on the bottom and set on top. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and them put them on a wire rack to cool completely.  

Meanwhile, make your glaze by combining the powdered sugar, ground ginger and the pinch of salt.  Add milk a tiny bit at a time, stirring very well in between, until you reach drizzling consistency.  You may not use all the milk. 

I like to use a piping bag for more uniform drizzling of glaze but you can also put your glaze in a plastic bag and cut off one tiny corner for the same effect.  When the cookies are completely cool, drizzle on the glaze.

Enjoy! 

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