Many do not know how to make delicious shortbread pastry from which they can bake pastries and biscuits for tea. We'll tell you how to make it crunchy and melt-in-your-mouth at the same time.
The composition of shortbread pastry usually includes flour, butter, eggs, sugar and salt. Much of the butter and sugar make the shortbread pastry crumbly /sandy/, hence its name. Sometimes the French word sable is used, from which the word sand comes.
Recipe for shortbread pastry
Ingredients:
250 g of flour
150-200 g of butter at room temperature
100 g fine sugar or powdered sugar
2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg
pinch of salt
Method of preparation:
Combine the softened butter, sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir into a paste-like consistency. This can be done with a mixer. Do not exceed the amount of butter.
Add the egg yolks or egg at room temperature, mix. Sift the flour onto the work surface and make a hole in the center. Put the butter mixture in the middle. Gather the flour from the edges, knead until you get a dough, which is gathered into a ball. The dough can also be prepared with a food processor.
When all the ingredients are combined, knead the dough 3-4 times with your hand. Do not knead for too long.
Wrap the dough in non-stick foil and refrigerate it for an hour. Then take it out and use it to make sweets and cookies. Baking the pastries from the shortbread pastry should be at a temperature of 180-200°C.
Notes:
Wrapped in foil, the dough can be stored in the refrigerator for a week. In the freezer it will remain usable for 3 months.
To make the chocolate shortbread pastry, replace 30g of flour with sugar-free dark cocoa powder.
For the shortbread pastry with nuts, add half a cup of finely ground nuts and 1-2 tablespoons of sugar to the butter/sugar mixture.
You can add vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, grated lemon or orange peel to the shortbread pastry.
