Almond Shortbread (with photo)

[asha_76]

Hi all,

I quite like the EDC shortbread myself (and find it so easy) but decided to give this recipe a go seeing as I had all of the ingredients in the cupboard.  It is a wetter and stickier dough than the EDC version but it worked out pretty well and was very popular with hubby and my daughter so I thought I would share!

ALMOND SHORTBREAD -   adapted from Marie Claire Cooking by Donna Hay

Makes - 20 (according to recipe)...I got 24.

Ingredients
250g hard butter, cut into cubes
75g icing sugar (3/4 cup)
5g vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
250g plain flour
100g blanched almonds
extra icing sugar for dusting

Preparation
1.  Toast the almonds in the TM bowl for 10 minutes at Varoma temperature on Reverse + Speed 1.
2.  Chop the almonds for 8-10 seconds on Speed 7 until almond meal and set aside.  If desired, rinse the bowl to cool it down before Step 3 so butter doesn't begin to melt.
3.   Place butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract into TM bowl and mix for 10 seconds on Speed 6 to combine.
4.  Add flour and almonds to bowl.  Set dial to closed lid position and mix for approximately 1 minute on Interval Speed until a smooth dough is formed.
5.  Tip mixture onto floured board and lightly knead to bring together (dough will be quite wet and sticky).  Refrigerate for at least 5 minutes (I did 15) or until dough is firm.
6.  Preheat oven to 160°C.
7.  Press mixture evenly with palm of hand into cake tin and flute edges if desired.
8.  Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until pale golden brown.
9.  Mark top into portions while still in baking tray.
10.  Wait until shortbread is cooled before transferring to a wire rack and sprinkling with icing sugar (don't transfer whilst still warm as the shortbread will break apart).

Tips/Hints
The original recipe suggests taking 2 tablespoons of dough at a time and rolling into crescents.  You then place them on baking trays lined with non-stick paper and cook for 15 minutes or until shortbread is golden (personally I found the dough too wet and sticky for this).

members' comments

johnro - Such tasty morsels Asha - the star shaped shortbread I used 200g plain flour and added 110g rice flour as well as the almond meal (an oops moment occurring when I blitzed a combination of blanched and flaked almonds while thermie was still in counterclock -).  The heart shaped variety used the posted recipe but I found that I needed to add an additional 60g flour as it was too sticky - didn't bother to refrigerate, just rolled between baking paper and cut shapes!!!!  Thank you for the recipe.

cookie -  they are really nice. I put mine into a slice tin and dotted the top with a fork before it cooked, and also marked the lines where I would cut it. While it was still warm I cut it but left it in the tin. It's lovely. I added 50g more flour and it was reasonably firm.

[judydawn]

The family are usually good judges of our cooking Asha - if they gave it the thumbs up, it must be good. Thanks for the recipe, there are many on here who like their shortbread.

[cookie1]

Lovely. This would have a wonderful flavour.

[johnro]

Such tasty morsels Asha - the star shaped shortbread I used 200g plain flour and added 110g rice flour as well as the almond meal (an oops moment occurring when I blitzed a combination of blanched and flaked almonds while thermie was still in  -      ).  The heart shaped variety used the posted recipe but I found that I needed to add an additional 60g flour as it was too sticky - didn't bother to refrigerate, just rolled between baking paper and cut shapes!!!!  Thank you for the recipe.

[fundj&e]

they do look lovely  robyn

[asha_76]

Wow johnro, what great photos...they look so yummy!  I like your tweaks to the recipe too.

For the life of me I don't know how they managed to make crescent shapes out of the original recipe dough as it is just so wet and sticky.

I'll try adding the extra flour next time I give these a go and see if I can manage to cut out shapes rather than cooking it all in a tin.

So glad you enjoyed the recipe!

[cookie1]

I made this yesterday and they are really nice. I put mine into a slice tin and dotted the top with a fork before it cooked, and also marked the lines where I would cut it. While it was still warm I cut it but left it in the tin. It's lovely. I added 50g more flour and it was reasonably firm.

[asha_76]

Great to hear cookie1! 

They were certainly very popular in our house.  When you have a husband who is a shortbread fanatic then every time I make them they are always eaten up in a couple of days!