Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies with Lemon Glaze Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What happens if you add too much butter to shortbread cookies? ›

Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly.

Irish Shortbread Is Distinct From Scottish Shortbread

As cornstarch is a potent thickener relative to flour, this creates a denser cookie. Whichever version of shortbread you prefer, though, the original -- which is often just called "shortbread" -- came from Scotland.

You can start with this recipe for Salted caramel shortbread bars; your baking powder will give the rich and buttery shortbread just enough lift to make it flaky and delicate. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish with nonstick spray and line the bottom with parchment.

The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour. The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.

So, if you are looking for a more "traditional" way to serve Earl Grey tea, try a classic Earl Grey blend like Mindful Morning and add a squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of sugar (or better yet, infused sugar).

Americans typically drink their Earl Grey with milk and sugar, but Chatterton prefers it the British way — with lemon and sugar. "Milk has a tendency to do strange things to black tea," he says. "It dulls the flavor a bit. It's not as crisp and sharp.

Earl Grey Tea: My preference for tea is always loose-leaf tea, but 2 tea bags is a great subsitute. Milk: Your milk of choice here, but note that cow's milk and oat milk are going to get the foamiest results.

Shortbread isn't a bread, it's what we Americans call a cookie.

Triangular wedges of shortbread became known as "petticoat tails", and this form of shortbread has become particularly associated with Mary, Queen of Scots. It has been suggested that a French term for the wedges of shortbread was petit* gâteaux or petites gatelles – little cakes, and this became "petticoat tails".

Why is shortbread so expensive? ›

As shortbread was made with butter, sugar and flour, it would be both expensive and difficult to get hold of the ingredients, and so became synonymous with wealth, luxury and celebrations.

If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent.

However, if you're in a pinch, the substitution is one teaspoon baking soda equals three teaspoons baking powder. Baking soda is also much stronger than baking powder and, by trying to provide enough leavening, you may wind up with an unpleasant metallic, salty taste in the final baked product.

Use unsalted butter for balanced flavour. Unsalted butter was traditionally used in baking because it was a superior product to salted - salt is used as a preservative so unsalted butter was thought to be fresher.

Too much butter will result in a very soft, sticky dough that's difficult to shape, and bakes up greasy and dense.

The longer a dough has to rest and chill, the easier it is to work with, the less it will shrink, and the crispier the result. In contrast, baking soft, warm dough will produce an oily-textured biscuit.

The Problem: Incorrectly Measured Ingredients

Sugar sucks up liquid, and when those cookies bake, it'll release the liquid and cause the cookies to spread out. If you use too much butter, the cookies will end up flat and greasy.