Spiced Shortbread with Dried Cranberries
As we all know by now, I love to bake. That is no secret. I try to have a sweet on hand so that we can enjoy a little treat after dinner. The husband prefers cookies so they are baked more often than anything else even though pie is my first choice. Not that I don’t like cookies but there is just something about a fruit pie…..
Shortbread are his favorite cookies but I find them a little bit….bland so I decided to add some spice and toss in some dried cranberries to see if I would like it better and indeed I did. The little hits of tart were just the thing in my opinion. I think next time a hint of dark chocolate might also make an appearance. We shall see.
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Spiced Shortbread with Dried Cranberries
makes 4 dozen give or take depending on the size of your cookie cutter
- 4 TBS granulated sugar
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp Chinese 5 Spice powder
- 12 TBS unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- Whisk the flour and 5 Spice powder together. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attached (or using a hand mixer in a large bowl) beat the butter, sugar, and salt until smooth and creamy. About 3 minutes.
- Add the egg and mix for one minute. Don’t worry if it looks curdled. It will come together when you add the flour.
- Turn off the mixer, lower the bowl and add all of the flour. Give it a stir to incorporate, then mix on low just ’til combined.
- Stir in the dried cranberries.
- Turn the dough out onto your counter, knead it a couple of times, then divide it in half.
- Place each half between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4″ thick
- Slide the dough, still on the parchment onto a cookie sheet and freeze for at least one hour. You can stack them on top of each other.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 and place the rack in the center of the oven.
- Work with one piece of dough at time; remove from the freezer and let thaw for about 5 minutes. Then peel the dough from the two pieces of parchment and place it back on one.
- Cut out your cookies – I used a 2″ biscuit cutter – and place them on your baking sheets
- Be sure to refreeze any leftover dough before you reroll and cut.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes rotating the sheet halfway in between
- Cool on a wire rack
How Were the Spiced Shortbread with Dried Cranberries Cookies?
Well, let’s just say they didn’t last long and leave it at that. We both enjoyed these buttery cookies. I liked them because they weren’t too sweet and one just hit the spot when I was looking for a bit of dessert.
I generally don’t like to fuss with cut out cookies but since the husband likes shortbread so much….well, you know how those things go. Next up will be something a little less time consuming.
