What's to not like about shortbread? While it's packed with butter, it has a light, crispy texture and doesn't feel like it's ladened with fat at all. I should also add that this is a cookie that doesn't take kindly to fat substitutions. This ingredient ratio is a spin on the classical shortbread cookie, with the addition of almond meal and almond extract.
When I lived in Los Angeles, I never had to worry about how cold it was in the kitchen to be able to cream butter and sugar together. Here in the NW, with a six-month rainy season, it is both damp and cold indoors during the winter so I wasn't able to cream the butter after allowing it to sit at room temperature. Instead, what I did was use a pastry blender and cut the butter into the brown sugar, then added the dry ingredients and mixed until strudel-like crumbs formed.
Ingredients
1 1/2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1 c. unsalted butter (two sticks; 8 oz), cut into small pieces
3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. almond meal (ground almonds)
1/4 c. cornstarch
pinch of salt
3 tbsp cold water + 1 tsp almond extract (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. [where possible] Cream butter and brown sugar together with a stand or handheld mixer. Add in flour, almond meal, salt, and cornstarch, and mix until coarse crumbs form. If the cookie dough doesn't come together, add a little bit of water so that it does.
2. Gather the dough into a ball, square, or large mound and let rest on a plate, baking sheet, or on parchment paper and let it rest for a few minutes in the refrigerator.
3. Between a sheet of parchment paper and wax paper, roll out dough until it is 1/8" thick. Peel back the wax paper and cut dough into rectangles, squares, odd shapes. You could even use cookie cutters, but you'll need to either use chilled metal cookie cutters or lightly floured cookie cutters so they don't stick to the cookie when lifted off the parchment paper.
It is important to keep this dough chilled before it goes into the oven. This is to help the cookies retain the shape they were cut into, and so that the butter doesn't melt faster than how the cookie bakes.
(optional) You can also press the dough into a tart pan (with a removable bottom) and bake for 15-20 minutes until the surface is lightly golden brown.
4. Space cookies about an inch apart and prick each cookie with the tines of a fork. The cookies will expand slightly when baking. Bake cookies on a parchment-lined baking tray for 10-15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.
Note: If you are making almond meal (also, almond flour) from scratch, do not over-pulse the raw whole unblanched almonds in the nut grinder, spice mill, or coffee grinder or you'll be making almond butter instead. The almond meal should be able to pass through a flour sifter. The larger bits can be put through the grinder again.
