Shortcrust pastry is considered among the culinary most simple to prepare. Nevertheless, it can be used as a basic recipe for an infinite number of gastronomic experiments. In this article we will talk about how to make shortbread dough for cookies. Recipes with photos, step-by-step instructions and different options for how to prepare this base for desserts will be given below.
This simple pastry is good for Sunday or Saturday evenings, a children's party, a light breakfast. Holiday versions of cookies from this dough can be served on New Year or Christmas. Many peoples have interesting traditions associated specifically with shortcrust pastry. Now we will learn how to make it at home. It’s so much tastier and healthier.
Why is it so called
Before we give recipes for shortcrust pastry for cookies, let's find out why he was given such a name. This can be read in several versions. Some people think that culinary products from such a basis are called sand because they are cut out with curly molds, as if children were playing in a sandbox.
In fact, these desserts are named in this way, because if they are done correctly, they become crumbly and seem to melt in your mouth. And all because they contain a lot of fats. From this cookie will not only be delicious, but also tender. And everyone can cook them. Moreover, no special tricks are needed for this. Products are all very affordable, and you can buy them everywhere: eggs, butter, flour ... Let's get started.
Shortbread dough for cookies. Step by step recipe
To make several servings of such culinary products, you need to take a little less than a hundred grams of sugar, 2 eggs, 250 grams of flour, 150 grams of butter (in the budget version they can be replaced with margarine or spread). We need a teaspoon of powder-baking powder, as well as a pinch of salt.
The first step is to grind the eggs with sugar well, so that the mixture becomes whitish and slightly thickened. While we are doing this, it is better to put the oil in a warm place so that it becomes soft (but in no case melts).
Now you can proceed to the second step. Sift the flour through a sieve and mix with baking powder and salt. Add the dry mixture to the beaten eggs, put the oil in the same place.
To the third step - kneading shortcrust pastry for cookies - the recipe requires you to be very careful. This should not be done for a long time. Otherwise, the dough will be too clogged. Knead quickly and form a ball. Now cover it with cellophane, cling film or wet gauze. We put in the refrigerator. That, in fact, is all.
A quarter of an hour to cook, twenty minutes in the refrigerator - and the dough is suitable for baking. If you want to make cookies, then go to the fourth step. We roll out the dough on a floured powder board, cut out the figures that our imagination prompts, and then transfer to a baking sheet and keep it in the oven for 10-15 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees. Before serving cookies to the table, let it cool. You can sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
More complicated recipe
If you want to prepare such desserts for a large company, you should change the number of products. Flour to take three glasses, butter - more than a pack (about 300 grams), sugar - a glass. But the number of eggs can not be changed, just two. To improve the taste, you can add a bag of vanilla sugar. But the principle of preparation remains the same as in the basic recipe for shortcrust pastry for cookies, which we described step by step.
All bulk products join together. Then add the oil - if it is not too softened, it can be cut into small pieces. In this case, it is better to put everything in a blender. Then the oil with bulk products will be crushed into crumbs. Add eggs there and beat to obtain a homogeneous mass. And then we form a ball and do the same as in the previous recipe. By the way, not only products should be chilled, but also the hands with which we work with the dough.
How can you improve the composition of the test and the taste of products from it
Even when making the simplest desserts, you need to follow the rules and know the secrets. We saw that for the preparation of shortcrust pastry for cookies, the recipe requires you to take simple products. But additives can also be used. They will give the liver a special taste and aroma.
We met one such supplement above. This is vanilla sugar. But in the preparation of shortcrust pastry also use grated zest of lemon or orange, nuts, chocolate, as well as cocoa or cinnamon. Flour can be mixed with a portion of starch. Baking powder is appropriate to replace with soda.
But if you can skillfully make the dough, then you should completely abandon the baking powder. To do this, cool all the surfaces on which you will "conjure" over kneading. If you do everything very quickly and do not allow the dough to heat up, it will “fluff” on its own. Cool it to make it matte and smooth. Otherwise, the dough will crumble and roll badly. That is, it should not only be well kneaded, but also give it a "rest".
Secrets of "friability"
Above, we gave two ways to make shortcrust pastry. It is cooked by hand or with the help of a food processor. The recipe for crisp shortcrust pastry for cookies depends on whether you add baking powder to it or not. If you use softened butter or margarine, then cookie powder is appropriate. If you chop it into crumbs with a knife, then you do not need to add baking powder. Then the moisture that is in the oil will evaporate while you knead the dough.
What is it for? To steam released during the batch, made the dough crumbly. And the movements themselves are best done from the center to the edges. So gradually, working with both hands, you will capture all the flour. If the oil is soft, then it, like other liquid components, is mixed with eggs. Dry components are most often added to flour. Do the same with crushed butter.
Dough becomes very friable if part of the flour is replaced with starch. But then the desserts will come out “for everybody.” The golden classic rule for combining ingredients for shortcrust pastry is 1 to 2. That is, 300 grams of oil or fat should have twice as much flour.
How to roll shortbread dough for cookies: recipe with photo
Different products require dough of various thicknesses. To make cookies, the layer needs to be rolled out. But its thickness should be no more than 4-8 millimeters. Otherwise, the dough will bake poorly. And the cookies that you will cut with molds or a curly knife should also be the same thickness. This is done so that all products are baked evenly, and it wasn’t such that some were burnt, while others remained damp.
It is best to roll such dough on parchment paper, spread on a board. Sprinkle it with flour. A dough must be covered with another sheet of parchment. If you roll it on top of the paper, it will remain smooth and retain the desired texture. If the dough breaks, remove the parchment, cover the hole with an extended edge. Then carefully roll it again.
Baking
Often, before putting products into the oven, a baking sheet is greased or covered with special paper. But in the case of shortcrust pastry for cookies, the recipe is left to your discretion. The fact is that it is already too fat. Therefore, most likely, the products will not stick to the pan. But you need to chop the cookies with a fork. This is to ensure that no air bubbles form in the dough during cooking.
Place cookies in the oven, which is already preheated. The fire should be medium, but it depends on the thickness of the products. Know that the thinner your layers, the higher the temperature in the oven should be. And vice versa - thick pieces of dough are baked at not too high a fire. But you must definitely follow the process. It happens that during baking cookies start to burn on top. Then they are covered with parchment paper.
Cookies with Almonds or Nuts
Want to get nut or almond homemade shortcrust pastry? Recipes in some cases prescribe to take only half the necessary amount of flour. The rest can be replaced with grated very finely, in dust, hazelnuts or almonds. In this case, instead of sugar, powder is taken, and cocoa is often added to the dough. The taste of such products is simply extraordinary.
Almond shortcrust pastry is popular in many European countries. They are prepared in the form of crescents or stars. After baking, they are crumbled in vanilla sugar. The French add grated chocolate to the festive version of the dough for such cookies, and Italians chopped marzipan.
It happens that they cook the usual shortbread dough. With crushed nuts or peanuts, it is only sprinkled before baking. In this case, the pieces should be large, they do not need to be crushed much. For shortbread cookies sprinkled with nuts, protein is required. The dough is divided into balls. The upper half of each of them is dipped in protein, after which - in nuts, and then put on a baking sheet, slightly pressing down.
Cookies with jam and other fillings
How to understand how well our products are baked? This is evident by their color when you take the cookies out of the oven. They should be light brown or golden. If there was not enough fat in the dough and the cookies stuck to the pan, it’s better not to try to “tear them off” right away. Wait until they cool slightly. Then knock on the baking sheet, and they themselves will move.
Often such products like to grease with fruit, oil or cream fillings, or stick together with each other using jam. Cook them according to the usual recipe from shortcrust pastry for cookies. With jam and fruit fillings, you can start desserts when they are still warm. They are lubricated, almost as soon as they get out of the oven. But if you want to use butter or custard, it is better to wait until the cookies have cooled. This is necessary so that the filling does not exfoliate.
Cookie cutters
In order to cook products that do not need to be rolled out, but rather, molded or squeezed out using a pastry bag, you need a special kind of dough. It must be soft so that it can be placed in molds. The recipe for shortcrust pastry for cookies in this case requires you to take 400 grams of butter or margarine, 3 eggs, an incomplete glass of sugar for three cups of flour, and also extinguish the soda on the tip of a knife in a teaspoon of lemon juice. They knead it very quickly, and then put it in the refrigerator for two hours.
This dough is literally spread on tins and baked according to general rules. Products are soft. Well-suited for such baking and shortcrust pastry on sour cream. Then they take a couple of spoons of sugar, and only 200 grams of oil. But in the dough add one and a half glasses of sour cream and soda, slaked with lemon juice. Vanilla sugar also does not hurt. This dough can be spread on molds or rolled out if you hold it longer in the refrigerator.
Shortcrust pastry without eggs
Vegetarians can also enjoy such confectionery. Here's a step-by-step recipe for making shortcrust pastry without eggs. At the first stage, we select the ingredients. We will need three glasses of flour, a pack of butter and four tablespoons of sour cream. But that's not all. We take a glass of sugar, salt at the tip of a teaspoon, as well as any spices: vanilla, anise, cinnamon or nutmeg.
This dough is made with softened butter. Therefore, the second stage consists of the fact that we leave the fat for a while at room temperature, and then knead it well with a fork. The third step is to grind sugar with butter until the grains cease to feel. It’s even better to take powder, not sand. The fourth step is to combine the remaining dry products and add to the oil mixture.
At the very end, we will have sour cream. The remaining steps are the same as in other cookies shortcake recipes. They put it in the oven no earlier than after a half-hour stay in the refrigerator.
For vegans, a recipe for such a test is suitable without butter and dairy products. In this case, it is worth using vegetable fat, best of all - olive. Instead of sour cream, condensed almond or coconut milk is used.
Butter or margarine?
Like any other dough, shortbread has certain physical and chemical properties that create its taste after baking. Therefore, the question often arises before the cooks: what is better to use for its preparation - butter or margarine. The latter is usually replaced by expensive products.
Recipe for shortcrust pastry on margarine for cookies, of course, is suitable. But do not forget that this is an artificial product. It contains the so-called trans fats, which can contribute to the formation of malignant tumors. On the other hand, dough on margarine makes baking easier, and many ladies on a diet prefer it.
Oil is not only more expensive, but also better. Most often, it is part of the original recipes for shortcrust pastry for cookies. In oil, the products are more tender. If you decide to use this particular creamy product, it is better to buy one so that it does not have extraneous odors. Otherwise, it will affect the quality of baking.
Storage
Most often, small items made from shortcrust pastry are eaten immediately. And what if you knead it too much? In any case, if you have followed the classic shortcrust pastry recipe for cookies (or with some variations), you can don’t bake it all at once. It is perfectly stored. You can bake it in small portions, leaving the rest in the refrigerator. If you send such dough to the freezer, then it can be there for two to three months without any harm to the quality of the products.