Pressed Rosemary Shortbreads
2 Dozen 3” Round Shortbreads (perfect with tea or coffee)
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp table salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup white sugar
½ cup confection sugar
3 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves (usually 2-3 sprigs)
1 tsp vanilla paste (you can substitute vanilla extract, if you prefer)
2 eggs (used for separate purposes)
Sanding sugar (I used green for the holidays)
1) Whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt and set aside.
2) Roughly chop the 2 or 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary – you want a total of about 3 Tbsp. My general rule is that 1 Tbsp of chopped rosemary will flavor 1 cup of flour.
3) Cream together the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy. This should take about 3-4 minutes
4) Add the chopped rosemary to the creamed butter and mix in thoroughly. This will disperse the leaves and their oil into the butter.
5) Add one egg and the vanilla paste and mix in thoroughly. Then, with the mixer on low, add the dry mix to combine. This will be a soft dough.
6) Divide the dough in half. Flatten each half into a one-inch disk and wrap each in cling wrap and chill at least two hours.
7) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking pans with parchment.
8) Roll the first disk to a thickness of ¼ inch. Dip your cookie stamp in flour and shake off any excess. Stamp the dough with as many rounds as will fit, re-flouring the stamp as necessary. Using a 3” biscuit cutter, cut out each round and carefully place each cookie on the parchment-lined pan. Re-roll the dough only once and stamp and cut again. Each disk of dough should give you a dozen cookies.
9) Whisk together the remaining egg with 1 Tbsp of water and brush the tops of each cookie. Sprinkle with white sugar or colored sanding sugar.
10) Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through.
11) Let the cookies cool on the pan 10 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
