Here at Pagosa Baking Company, Halloween begins with shortbread. This simple rich dough makes crisp buttery tasting cutouts, works well for bar cookie bases, and beautifully takes on additions like toasted pecans. Continued...
We use European butter as a portion of the overall fat in the recipe. It adds richness, flavor, and bakes up more evenly.
12 ounces unsalted European style butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4 ounces unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1 oz milk
In a standing mixer, cream the butters, salt and sugars together till you can see only very tiny lumps of butter in the mix. These will help add flakiness to the baked cookie. Add half the flour, and mix till absorbed. Add the remaining flour, mixing again, till the dough starts to come together, but still looks dry. Stop the mixer and pour the milk in the bottom of the bowl. Mix for 30 seconds, till the dough comes together. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough till ready to use.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator half an hour before you’re ready to roll it out.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Using a floured surface and rolling pin, roll the dough to 1/4 ” thick. Cut the dough into desired shapes. Place cut outs on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Chill the cut outs for 10 minutes. Bake cookies for 10 to 14 minutes, depending on size. Cool completely. Decorating cut outs: When using colored sugars, apply the sugar to the cookie before baking. Continued...
Royal Icing
3 oz egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar, or a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
10 ounces powdered sugar
Mix all ingredients with the whisk attachment on a standing mixer on speed 1 to combine. Then, mix on speed 2 till the icing holds a peak and has lost its shine. Add desired food colors. Spread onto cooled shortbread cookies, or use in a piping bag to decorate the cookies. Let the icing dry completely before covering the cookies for storage.
Pagosa Baking Company is Pagosa Springs, Colorado's downtown bakery, offering fresh breads, delightful pastries, pies, cakes, cookies and more. We are located at 238 Pagosa Street in the East Village. We also serve BREAKFAST and LUNCH seven days a week; come by for a great Breakfast Burrito or Panini Sandwich! You can also browse our select merchandise, such as imported olive oils, organic fair trade coffee, cheeses, and out-of-this-world locally-made pestos and spreads from Enchanted Valley Farm. For more information, call us at 970-264-9348, or visit our website. |