Monday, July 19, 2010

Shortbread

Expectation: To fulfill my craving for shortbread!

Winning Recipe: White Whole Wheat Shortbread Wedges


I had been craving shortbread for a few days and was pretty skeptical that a whole grain version would work, but I was determined! I ended up trying five different recipes before finding the winner. I started with the three recipes in my King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book - Scottish Shortbread (which used ground rolled oats), Light and Crunch Oat Shortbread (which combined ground rolled oats and whole rolled oats), and Brown Rice Shortbread (using brown rice flour). All three of these made delicious cookies, but they just didn't have the melt-in-your-mouth quality of true shortbread. So, I began experimenting on my own. The fourth recipe I tried used half white whole wheat flour and half whole wheat pastry flour. These had a much better consistency and a great not-too-sweet flavor, but were a little too hearty. 

Finally I settled on mostly white whole wheat flour with a touch of all-purpose flour. These cookies are lightly sweet, with a tender bite, and extremely easy to make. They are excellent with coffee or dipped in chocolate!

Ingredients:
  • 3/4 cup White Whole Wheat Flour (how to measure flour)
  • 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
  • 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
Preparations:

Preheat oven to 325°F. 

Combine flours and sugar; cut in butter until mixture forms crumbs and starts to cling. Form dough into a ball and knead until smooth. 

At this point, you can form the dough however you like. I chose wedges, because they are simple and cute. To make wedges, pat the dough into an 8-inch circle on an ungreased baking sheet. Cut the circle into 16 wedges of equal size (this keeps the shortbread from breaking when you cut it after it's baked).

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bottom just starts to brown and center is set. Cut the wedges again while the cookies are still warm. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. 

Nutrition facts for one cookie:
95 calories
5g fat
10g carbohydrate
1g fiber
GI 68
GL 6.8

About the grains:

White Whole Wheat Flour is produced from a hard, white variety of the wheat plant. White whole wheat tastes and appears more like refined flour, even though it has almost the same nutrient content as red whole wheat. You can substitute 25 to 50% (depending on your taste) of the all-purpose flour in cookie, brownie and pancake recipes. I purchased a five pound bag of King Arthur Flour Organic White Whole Wheat Flour for $7.99 at Whole Foods). See how I used it in coffeecake, and peach apricot oatmeal bread.

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