Royal Shortbread Cookies

Who doesn’t like shortbread biscuits?! J and I love them! We love Walkers Shortbread!

Following the Christmas episode of Food Factory on “Yule Love This”, demonstrating how just 4 simple ingredients could produce the deliciously complex flavour of the crumbly, buttery Scottish shortbread, I was totally craving for some to munch on! And it doesn’t hurt to learn that the Walker family started baking shortbread in the Speyside village of Aberlour, surrounded by the picturesque landscape of the Scottish highlands, since way back in 1898, and it is where they remain to this day! So rich in history, as rich in its calories too.

Naturally, when I found this perched gracefully on the top shelf of the Christmas Cookies section in Walmart, I just had to bag 2 boxes of it.

Furthermore, the mission for Calgary’s Gastroposters that week was to share and post our #HolidayIndulgences. I became a Gastroposter after they contacted me to ask for my permission to repost my Herbal Chicken picture for an earlier mission on #SomethingDelicious. Gastropost is a community of food lovers in Calgary set on weekly food missions to eat and share what the mission for that week demands on them. Every mission completed gains the Gastroposter a chance to be featured in the Calgary Herald newspaper and online on Gastropost.com. I thought it was quite interesting and posted Walkers Shortbread as my holiday indulgence.

After tasting Crystal’s shortbread, I was so addicted to them that I actually began rationing my intake for the fear of finishing them too quickly! Unbelievable! Hence, I set out on my own mission to bake shortbreads too! Got the recipe from Crystal and started baking away! After toiling over baking and caring for my near-4-month-old infant simultaneously, the 1st batch was a success. But, for the need of an easier recipe that can achieve equivalent results in less time (in view of my baby), I have tweaked the recipe in the “Methods” section and still produced shortbread cookies that deserve a standing ovation i.e. from me. For you, you will have to try making it with my recipe and decide for yourself! 😁

Ingredients

250g Salted Butter
1/2 cup Icing Sugar
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Corn Starch
1.5 cup All purpose Flour
200g Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Methods

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, cream the butter till it becomes pale in colour and fluffy in appearance.
Add sugar and vanilla. Mix well.
Add corn starch and flour. Mix till the cookie dough begins to come together.
Roll out the dough to your desired cookie thickness. (J likes them thin and crunchy, yet melt in the mouth)
Cut out the cookies using your favourite cookie-cutter shape(s).
Place cookies on baking sheets lined with wax paper or parchment paper.
Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 12 min.
Melt chocolate chips in a microwaveable bowl in the microwave oven for 1.5 min. (Depending on the strength you use for your microwave oven, you may need more or less time to melt the chocolate).
Coat shortbreads with as much chocolate as you desire. (I recommend coating half your cookie so that you can still taste the buttery shortbread, which is very nice on its own).

The End Product