What Makes it Special? Luscious fresh vanilla beans scraped right from the pod in addition to vanilla extract gives these cookies a double-whammy of flavor.
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Tool #1: A large, clean counter or workspace. Take a few minutes to clean up and clear the space in advance.
Tool #2: Flour, lots of it. Toss generous handfuls on the counter before rolling out the dough with a thoroughly dusted rolling pin. Dust your hands too so you can press torn pieces of dough together and smooth out the seams.
Tool #3: Use a pastry scraper to lift the dough from the work surface. I do this several times during the rolling process, sometimes flipping the dough like a pancake so I can roll on the other side.
As for the attitude? A laissez faire approach works best for me regarding dough thickness and cookie yield. I always intend to do what the recipe says, but I refuse to freak out if my dough is a touch thicker or thinner. In this case, the recipe called for ¼-inch thick dough and a yield of 2 dozen cookies. My dough was thinner and my cutters were on the small side, so I got about 50 cookies from my batch. Be sure to adjust your baking time though! I watched carefully and shaved a few minutes off the oven time.
Click on the photos to enlarge them and read the captions.
Print The Recipe- Vanilla Bean Shortbread Tea Cookies |
Recipe source: The View From Great Island
Yield: makes approximately 2 dozen
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
- Cream the sugar and butter together in a stand mixer with the vanilla bean seeds. Blend in the flour and vanilla extract until the dough comes together.
- Sprinkle flour on your work surface, then place the soft dough there and divide it into two disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350F.
- After the dough is chilled, roll it out on a floured surface to about ¼-inch thick and cut out the cookies. Place them on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet.
- Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator while you clean up.
- Bake the cookies for 10-13 minutes until firm.
- Cool on a rack.