Pressed butter shortbread
Rich, sandy, buttery shortbread pressed straight into a pan from four ingredients, with no rolling pin and no cookie cutters.
- 135 min total
- 12 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 8
- About $0.41 a serving
- 360 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. Whatever’s left keeps for tomorrow.
Ingredients
For 8 servings.
- 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
From your pantry
- ½ cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for the top
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Each serving has about 360 calories, 3 g protein, 36 g carbs and 23 g fat, and costs about $0.41 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Leave the butter out at for about 1 hour, until it dents easily, then the oven to 325°F.
Room temperature. It means letting something sit out until it’s no longer fridge-cold, about 30 to 60 minutes for butter or eggs. It helps things blend smoothly, but never leave raw meat out over 2 hours.
How you’ll know: It feels cool, not cold, and butter dents easily when you press it.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
8-inch square pan with , leaving the paper hanging over two sides.
Line a pan. Lining a pan means covering the bottom, and often the sides, with parchment paper or foil before the food goes in. Leave the paper hanging over two sides, and you can lift bars or brownies out in one piece to cut them neatly.
How you’ll know: The paper lies flat against the bottom, with flaps sticking up on two sides like handles.
Parchment paper. Parchment paper is a nonstick, oven-safe paper for lining pans. Food lifts right off and cleanup is easy, but don’t swap in wax paper or put parchment under the broiler.
How you’ll know: It lies flat in the pan, and the food slides off when you lift it.
, ½ cup sugar and salt in a large bowl with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
Cream. Creaming means beating soft butter and sugar together until the mix turns pale and fluffy. The beating traps tiny air bubbles, which help cookies and cakes rise and bake up tender.
How you’ll know: It looks lighter in color, like thick frosting, and feels fluffy instead of gritty and dense.
Dolly’s tip: Press and smear the butter against the side of the bowl. It turns lighter in color when it’s ready.the flour, then stir it in until a soft dough forms and no dry bits are left.
Spoon and level. Spoon and level is how to measure flour: spoon it lightly into the measuring cup, then sweep the extra off the top with the back of a knife. Scooping straight from the bag packs in too much flour and makes bakes dry and heavy.
How you’ll know: The flour sits flat and even with the rim, and you never pressed it down or tapped the cup.
Food safety: Don’t eat raw dough or batter, not even a lick of the spoon. Raw flour can carry E. coli and raw eggs can carry salmonella until they’re cooked. The one exception is dough with no eggs, made with flour heated to 165°F.
Press the dough evenly into the pan with your fingers and prick it all over with a fork.
Dolly’s tip: Smooth the top with the bottom of a measuring cup for clean edges.Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until pale at the edges and firm in the middle.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 30 min
Sprinkle the top with the tablespoon of sugar and cut it into 16 bars right away, while it’s warm.
Dolly’s tip: Cut it now, while it’s soft. Cooled shortbread shatters when you slice it.Cool completely in the pan , about 30 minutes, then lift it out and break the bars apart.
Cool on a rack. Cooling on a rack means setting a hot pan or fresh cookies on a wire grid, so air moves underneath and the bottom doesn’t steam and turn soggy. No rack? The cool grates of your stovetop work the same way.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan feels barely warm when you touch it, and bars cut cleanly instead of crumbling.
Timer: 30 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop picks a dessert for treat night, puts what you need on the week’s grocery list, and walks you through each step.
