For citrus flavours, you have 2 basic options, oils or zests.  Since no liquid is added to shortbread dough, it’s not really a good idea to add citrus juice to it.  The best way to get the flavours are by adding the dry zest, but be sure not to zest to deeply as the white pith is very bitter and doesn’t really have that much citrus flavour.

I recommend using a microplane zester ( Such as this Microplane Stainless Steel Zester ), and only zesting as deeply as you can still see the colour of the fruit skin. If the fruit is white and not tinged with say, orange colour, you’ve gone too deep.  Use less pressure on the next stroke of the plane.

Another option is to use citrus oils, though only ones that say they are for food, as many oils are used for cleaning.  These will not leave small pieces of zest in the cookies, which are usually too small to feel in the mouth, but some people may not care for them.  They aren’t that easy to find, aren’t cheap, but will not colour the cookies in any way.

For chocolate shortbread, chips or chunks work best, but they will make the dough difficult to slice and fairly impossible to roll evenly.  If slicing chocolate chunk or chip shortbread dough, it is best to be patient and use a serated slicing knife.  It is also helpful to thoroughly chill the dough before attempting to slice, as the textures of refrigerated chocolate and shortbread dough are much more similar than their textures at room temperatures.

For shortbread with nuts, most of the same tips apply as above.  It is better to use whole or roughly chopped nuts in shortbread as adding ground nuts will change the texture of the dough and may make the final cookies not hold together too well.  It is also helpful in this instance to chill the dough before slicing.

Tip 1.  When rolling out the shortbread, or any type of cookie for that matter, to ensure an even thickness across whatever you’re rolling, it’s helpful to have 2 strips (say like an old wooden board) of whatever thickness you want your cookies to be.  Place the boards on either side of the dough and roll onto them.  This will ensure that you get exactaly the same thickeness no matter how many pieces of dough you roll, and that the dough won’t get thinner at the edges where more pressure is applied.  If this is something you make a lot, you can even mark the size of your cookies onto the planks and cut using those guidelines.

2.   If you want to sugar your shortbread.  There are 2 options both with their own pros and cons.  You can lightly brush the surfaces with an egg white and then dust them with sugar.  This method uses the additional materials of an egg white, which if you’re in a commercial setting is no problem, but at home it can be more of a hassle than it’s worth.   So, another method is to dust the cookies with sugar straight after they’ve come out of the oven.  This only coats the top surface, but it doesn’t require any extra materials.

© 2012 Culinary Tips Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha