Having said that, they were tricky to make. The shortbread tastes incredible but was incredibly crumbly and hard to get out of the muffin tins. As I baked batch by batch, decreasing the amount of batter in each tin and the baking time seemed to help. Still, they were difficult to get out and many of them didn't make it out.
Don't let it scare you. Shortbread is an amazing recipe worth mastering; it just takes some practice. Here are some tips:
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| Let's be real; creaming butter and sugar together is always an excellent way to start a recipe. |
When you cream, the shortest amount of time I would recommend is 2 minutes; the longest I've seen a recipe call for is 20 minutes. Don't skip this part, it gives shortbread and similar cookies their texture (putting air into the batter, making it "light and fluffy").
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Because shortbread dough is light and fluffy, do not handle it too much. Handle it as little as possible to keep the effect you got when you creamed it. Also, I think one of the problems with my shortbread cups was that I made the bottoms too thick; don't push down very far, just make an indentation.
This recipe calls for fresh lemon zest and juice. A different recipe Jessica and I made last night called for fresh lemon juice as well, and we talked about how to juice a lemon (sans juicer, not really necessary). Here's how:
- Obviously, if the recipe calls for zest, you'll want to grate it first.
- Roll the lemon on a hard surface with the palm of your hand. Don't push too hard, you don't want to squish it, but you should feel it loosening up.
- Slice the lemon in half.
- Squeeze the lemon with one hand into your other hand (to catch the seeds and unwanted pulp) over a bowl underneath. This will guarantee you don't have seeds in your juice because they can be hard to pick out, and no one wants to munch on one.
- Viola! This recipe calls for 1/3 cup lemon juice; I just juiced two lemons, which was about right.
Ready to assemble.
Finished!
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