Espresso Shortbread Cookies
When I was little, and before we lived across the road from my grandma, I would spend the night with her on weekends. It was our special time and always consisted of dinner at K&W, clearance shopping at Claire’s, McDonald’s breakfast, and a cup of hot tea and shortbread.
Immigrating from Scotland, my grandma drinks her fair of hot tea and biscuits (cookies). She passed that on to me as well. When my family built a house across the road from my grandparents, my tea drinking and shortbread eating increased, especially when working on sewing projects.
I would spend hours at my grandma’s to work on a sewing project for the latest sewing competition I was entering. In between cutting fabric, pinning patterns, and sewing seams, there was at least one tea break complete with shortbread cookies.
These are the fondest of memories and are always brought back when I have a cup of tea or shortbread, which is fairly often. I set out to make my own shortbread a few months ago and, while they tasted just fine, they were NOT pretty. I couldn’t get the dough to roll out like I wanted to, so it was just a bunch catheads. However, this time around, the shortbread turned out perfectly and even had a little extra pizzazz!
The great thing about shortbread, is that it is the most wonderful butter base for so many flavors. Try lemon and rosemary together for something unique, pecans for some added texture, or orange for some zing. For this recipe, I added espresso powder to my dough, and holy moly! It was so good!
For some added pizzazz I made some espresso butter cream to dollop on the cookie (you can also sandwich them). If you’ve never had buttercream on cookies, you are missing out. I mean, is buttercream ever a bad thing?
Servings: 12 cookies
Cookie Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon espresso powder
3/4 cup of flour (you may need a smidge more)
pinch of salt
Buttercream Ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
Directions:
Set oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar together in a stand mixer.
Add dry ingredients until well combined. (if the dough looks too wet, add a small amount of flour).
Form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 15-30 minutes.
Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Cut cookies in a shape of your choice.
Bake for 10-12 minutes
Cream buttercream ingredients together until smooth.
Decorate cookies with cream once they have cooled.
Adapted from Julie Blanner
