Brown Sugar Shortbread

Brown sugar shortbread, perfect for a quick, indulgent treat – no need to chill the dough! These shortbread cookies are buttery and tender with a rich caramel flavor from the brown sugar. They melt in your mouth with every bite and pair beautifully with a cup of tea or coffee. Ready in no time. Makes approx 24-27 cookies.

Ingredients:

• 230 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
• 50 grams dark brown sugar
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt, to taste – start with 1/2 teaspoon and adjust
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 230 grams all-purpose flour
• 50 grams blanched almond flour (somteimes labeled almond meal)
• Demerara or granulated sugar, for sprinkling on top

Instructions:

1. Heat your oven to 170 Celsius or 335 Fahrenheit.
2. Place the butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix briefly to combine. Add the vanilla and mix again.
3. Add the all purpose flour and almond meal (sifted, if lumpy) and mix until a dough forms.
4. Press the dough into a parchment lined 8×8 inch (20×20 cm) square metal baking pan. Smooth the dough out with an offset spatula. Sprinkle generously with sugar.
5. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the shortbread is golden brown. The shortbread will still feel very soft at this stage. Turn off the oven.
6. Use a sharp knife to cute the dough into slices or squares, to your desired size. For perfectly clean slices, carefully remove the shortbread from the pan and onto a flat surface, and clean the knife in between each cut.
7. Return to the turned off oven for 40 minutes. This helps the cookies firm up and gives them a crisper texture – skip this step for softer, slightly chewy shortbread.
8. Remove from oven, let the cookies cool, and enjoy! Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for a week, or frozen for longer storage.

adapted from seasons and suppers

Notes:

• Almond flour: almond flour gives these shortbread cookies the best texture, but if you don’t have almond flour, the recipe also works with all-purpose flour. Just skip the almond flour and use 260 grams of all-purpose flour.
• Small batch-ify: this recipe can easily be halved to bake in a loaf pan. However, the initial bake time may be shorter – start checking the pan at around 20 minutes.
• Brown sugar: the warm, caramelly flavor of brown sugar is my favorite part of these cookies, but if you don’t have any, granulated white sugar or light brown sugar will work too. You can also make your own by mixing 100 grams of granulated sugar with 1 tablespoon of molasses.