@ShuBunny - shortbread

[Norcalbaker59]

@ShuBunny,

Try baking the shortbread at 300°F (150°C). At that temperature, check it at 40 minutes, then 45 minutes.

This is shortbread with 80% butter, 35% sugar, 15% rice flour. It is 1” x 8”; I baked it for 55 minutes.

I do not pack my dough very hard when I make petticoats and fingers, so it bakes faster than dough that is more compacted. But this is baked at 300°F. So definitely play around with your oven temperature.

You can see there is very little browning—that is what you want on shortbread

Bottom is not browned either. A little browning is fine. The mark of fine shortbread is a pale crust, a buttery flavor, and either a sandy texture (rice flour) or soft melt in your mouth (cornstarch/flour).

 

[ShuBunny]

Wow. I am definitely remaking my shortbread.
I was careful to not let the top of my shortbread brown. But the bottom and sides are browned.

Really envious of the ripples your baked good have.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Wow. I am definitely remaking my shortbread.
I was careful to not let the top of my shortbread brown. But the bottom and sides are browned.

Really envious of the ripples your baked good have.

@ShuBunny, keep in mind that I don’t compress my dough and I also have a full size oven. You will get some browning with a more compacted dough and with a smaller oven chamber.
These are examples of shortbread pix I took off the internet. As you can see, properly baked shortbread has just a tinge of color.

This is from a blog on historic Scotland

This is from American food maven Martha Stewart’s website

The fluted edge tin I used for that shortbread is a Gobel tinned steel (not the non stick coated) tart tin. I have them in a variety of sizes and shapes rounds, squares, to retangle. They are so versatile. I use them for quiche, pie, tart, shortbread, and as a form to shape a handpie. I love these tins.

My sister gave me a shortbread pan divided into segments, each embossed with a different beautiful design. Unfortunately it is coated with a dark non-stick coating, so it causes the shortbread to deeply brown. It is such a shame because the designs are really quite charming.

 

[ShuBunny]

Hi @Norcalbaker59 ,

Your Gobel tin is beautiful, I went to google 'Gobel' and had to resist the impulse to order those gorgeous pans.

I was wondering if this was the shortbread pan your sister gifted you?
https://www.nordicware.com/english-shortbread-pan
I almost wanted to buy it for the design.

At the moment, my shortbread is a little more like the above then yours - today seems like a good day to retry it as i have no orders to fufil.

Going to push it a little paler.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hi @Norcalbaker59 ,

Your Gobel tin is beautiful, I went to google 'Gobel' and had to resist the impulse to order those gorgeous pans.

I was wondering if this was the shortbread pan your sister gifted you?
https://www.nordicware.com/english-shortbread-pan
I almost wanted to buy it for the design.

At the moment, my shortbread is a little more like the above then yours - today seems like a good day to retry it as i have no orders to fufil.

Going to push it a little paler.

lol! Yes that is the shortbread pan my sister gave me. I absolutely love The design. But oh my goodness does it over bake my short bread.

I love Gobel tins. I’ve used them for years. They are my favorite tin.

 

[ShuBunny]

and notice how nordicware has no shame showing how brown your will shortbread get in their tin.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

and notice how nordicware has no shame showing how brown your will shortbread get in their tin.

View attachment 3788

It’s really a beautiful tin! It’s not as bad as mine turned out. Mine turned out really brown. They do make lovely prints on cookies though. I should come up with a different recipe to use it.

 

[ShuBunny]

I look forward to that recipe

 

[ShuBunny]

I need a break from shortbread after today.

I did a 80% butter & 15% rice.
Baked at 155C, my oven can only do 145C or 155C. Bleh!
At 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 mins, I cut a small wedge from the shortbread from different sections and chucked the remainder back in the oven. I know that cutting small wedges isn't ideal, but I didn't want to bake 5 shortbreads over 5 hours to find out!

It does look gummy even at 60mins, but tastes not gummy, has the sandier texture I'm getting familiar with.
Will be trying it out between 55-60 mins to see how it cooks in the residual heat when it is left intact after removing from oven.

The top & bottom heating elements of my oven are 9 inches apart.
I'm starting to understand that my shortbread base and sides will always be brownish, as a trade off for not browning the tops of the shortbread.
Unless I cover the top of my shortbread half way in to stop it from browning?

Taste-wise, it's even more buttery than when cooked at a higher temp. Though I have grown rather fond of the snap of the crisp edges at the higher temp.

Noticed that at a lower temp, the butter seems to rise to the surface, cooking into bubbly flakes!

@Norcalbaker59, for 100g of flour, what's an appropriate amt of vanilla bean paste / extract? 1/4 tsp?

And I got my hands on LorAnn Oils, the candy flavouring range. Before I destroy any shortbread, is using LorAnn Oils a bad idea?

Thank you

Top View

Sides

The other sides

touching cake ring sides

Bottoms.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I need a break from shortbread after today.

I did a 80% butter & 15% rice.
Baked at 155C, my oven can only do 145C or 155C. Bleh!
At 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 mins, I cut a small wedge from the shortbread from different sections and chucked the remainder back in the oven. I know that cutting small wedges isn't ideal, but I didn't want to bake 5 shortbreads over 5 hours to find out!

It does look gummy even at 60mins, but tastes not gummy, has the sandier texture I'm getting familiar with.
Will be trying it out between 55-60 mins to see how it cooks in the residual heat when it is left intact after removing from oven.

The top & bottom heating elements of my oven are 9 inches apart.
I'm starting to understand that my shortbread base and sides will always be brownish, as a trade off for not browning the tops of the shortbread.
Unless I cover the top of my shortbread half way in to stop it from browning?

Taste-wise, it's even more buttery than when cooked at a higher temp. Though I have grown rather fond of the snap of the crisp edges at the higher temp.

Noticed that at a lower temp, the butter seems to rise to the surface, cooking into bubbly flakes!

@Norcalbaker59, for 100g of flour, what's an appropriate amt of vanilla bean paste / extract? 1/4 tsp?

And I got my hands on LorAnn Oils, the candy flavouring range. Before I destroy any shortbread, is using LorAnn Oils a bad idea?

Thank you

Top View
View attachment 3806

Sides
View attachment 3800

The other sides
View attachment 3801

touching cake ring sides
View attachment 3802

Bottoms.
View attachment 3803

Keep in mind that you have a very small oven. small oven means you’re going to have more intense heat. You’re not going to be able to reproduce my results in such a small oven.

The other thing is you mentioned you like the snap of a more baked cookie. So you should bake to your preference. there is tradition, and there is personal preference. By all means bake to your preference first when it is in conflict with the standard of tradition

The buttery flavor in the shortbread when it is not brown—that buttery flavor, and the soft sandy texture, and pale color are the three hallmarks are shortbread.

Shortbread is not a hard dry dry cookie snap cookie. That would be a biscuit.

I only use fresh vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste. Vanilla extract, all extracts really, are totally useless in baking. The alcohol evaporates when heated, and the flavor evaporates with it.

Oils are very strong. They also can impart strange flavors. I rarely use oils in A batter or dough.

 

[ShuBunny]

I only use fresh vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste. Vanilla extract, all extracts really, are totally useless in baking. The alcohol evaporates when heated, and the flavor evaporates with it.

Oils are very strong. They also can impart strange flavors. I rarely use oils in A batter or dough.

Thanks! I'll definitely use the vanilla bean paste instead.

Keep in mind that you have a very small oven. small oven means you’re going to have more intense heat. You’re not going to be able to reproduce my results in such a small oven.

The buttery flavor in the shortbread when it is not brown—that buttery flavor, and the soft sandy texture, and pale color are the three hallmarks are shortbread.

I'll still like to make something close to the ideal shortbread.

Does my crumbs look a little bit closer to the ideal?
I've been mindful to place an even amount of dough, and to smooth the top without pressing down on the shortbread as much as possible.

Is there anything you see that I could be more careful with?

Will keep the snappy ends for myself whenever I mess up my bakes

 

[ShuBunny]

Took a break from shortbread making to make sandwich buns for my parents.

They are liking their copycat fillet O fish.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Took a break from shortbread making to make sandwich buns for my parents.

They are liking their copycat fillet O fish.

View attachment 3817
View attachment 3818

Those look good. Now I am hungry. I miss eating fried fish. What I miss most is noodles and things like harumaki, lumpia, spring rolls.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thanks! I'll definitely use the vanilla bean paste instead.



I'll still like to make something close to the ideal shortbread.

Does my crumbs look a little bit closer to the ideal?
I've been mindful to place an even amount of dough, and to smooth the top without pressing down on the shortbread as much as possible.

Is there anything you see that I could be more careful with?

Will keep the snappy ends for myself whenever I mess up my bakes

The top looks really nice. And the few photos look pretty good. The cross sections of the last photo looks like the dough has a lot of air in it. Which it shouldn’t have. You definitely want the dough mixed enough so it comes together. You just don’t want the Dow to be compacted really hard. The first few photographs look good though.

Have you tried rolling in the dough into a cylinder, chilling it then slicing it into rounds and baking? or rolling in the dough into a sheet, then cutting cookies with a cookie cutter?

 

[ShuBunny]

Those look good. Now I am hungry. I miss eating fried fish. What I miss most is noodles and things like harumaki, lumpia, spring rolls.

@Norcalbaker59
Seriously, I was thinking of you when I had the fake fish of fillet. The fried fish is made without wheat. I don’t recall if marks and Spenser’s is in USA. But if they are, please try their gluten free fish fillet. It’s actually better than macdonalds. I’m aware macdonalds may not be a high bar for most though. Hahahah!

 

[ShuBunny]

The cross sections of the last photo looks like the dough has a lot of air in it. Which it shouldn’t have. You definitely want the dough mixed enough so it comes together. You just don’t want the Dow to be compacted really hard.

That’s actually the bottom of the shortbread. I’m super paranoid about compacting / accidentally melting the dough when I am combining it, so some dough is in pea-size clumps when I spread them out in the tin to smooth the top. I’ll take a pic of of my dough size when I am making another batch. I’m doing the fork method you used.

I’ve not tried formed shortbread cookies yet.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

@Norcalbaker59
Seriously, I was thinking of you when I had the fake fish of fillet. The fried fish is made without wheat. I don’t recall if marks and Spenser’s is in USA. But if they are, please try their gluten free fish fillet. It’s actually better than macdonalds. I’m aware macdonalds may not be a high bar for most though. Hahahah!


View attachment 3831

I find most of the better gluten-free products are from Europe. It seems they’ve been producing gluten-free products a lot longer, especially in Italy and Germany. The upscale stores here seem to carry a better selection of gluten-free imported from Europe. so I will check to see if it is available here.

 

[ShuBunny]

ah, that's awesome - i hope you find something tasty