The smell of freshly baked cookies that transcends through the house is absolute bliss. I love baking biscotti or any kind of cookies for that matter. There is just nothing better than a homemade cookie and my swirled buttery shortbread cookies is decadent, light, slightly crisp and has that melt-in-your-mouth texture. The secret to this recipe is that you need to use good quality butter. The butter must be room temperature to ensure that the creaming process with the powdered sugar is light and fluffy. I piped my cookie dough straight onto the baking sheet without chilling it in the fridge. My cookies didn’t loose it’s shape at all but if you are afraid that it might spread and lose it’s shape then by all means chill the dough for 15 minutes first before piping it.
The piping bag should only be filled halfway with dough otherwise you will struggle to pipe it onto the baking sheet. This, I discovered with my first batch and required a little bit of “elbow grease” to pipe. However, once you have the hang of it, then it should be fairly easy to pipe the dough. I used a large star tip nozzle to create the swirled look but of course you can use any large tip nozzle to make any shape you like. Don’t worry if your piping is not perfect – as you can see in the picture below; I don’t have the greatest piping skills either.
Sprinkle with sugar before baking, dip them in chocolate afterwards or just have it plain. No matter what the variations, it is guaranteed to taste delicious. Are you sold on making these from scratch? If so, then get baking.
Swirled Buttery Shortbread Cookies
melt-in-your-mouth decadence
Prep time: 10 min
Baking time: 20 min
Servings: 24 cookies
Ingredients
250g salted butter (room temperature)
1 cup icing sugar
2 cups cake flour
¼ cup corn flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a mixing bowl; beat the butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar with an electric beater until well incorporated. Sift the cake flour and cornflour into the butter mixture and mix more. Add the milk and continue to mix until the dough comes together.
Place the dough in a piping bag with a large star tip nozzle and pipe onto the lined baking sheet. Make sure that there is enough space between each cookie. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool and enjoy.
