A FEAST OF FRESH SHORTBREAD!
Strolling in the Scottish Highlands, you might be suddenly captivated by
a delicious aroma—freshly baked shortbread! Inspired by such memories,
real or imagined, these multi-cookie ceramic pans add the embellishment
of a Celtic symbol to each luscious piece of shortbread. All pans come
with simple recipes and baking instructions, and can also be used to make
ornaments of baker's clay or cast paper. The pans are made in America.
It's about having fun making, eating
and sharing surprisingly un-ordinary treats.
******
We feel that since cookies are so
much a part of our everyday lives, they
should be wonderful, not merely
tasty. With our molds, you can make
cookies to delight the eye, gladden
the heart and tickle the funny-bone.
******
Shortbread is so easy to make, and
so utterly delicious. The simplicity of
the butter, sugar, flour recipe
can’t, in my opinion, be beat. To make yours
come out perfectly every time, there
are just a few simple directions to follow.
******
Sugarcraft's
HOME-MENU
Molding
Chocolate in Your Brown Bag Shortbread Pan ******
Ceramic molds will not absorb oil
or discolor.
Scrub them after use in a dish pan
of hot, soapy water, or put them in a
dish washer. They'll come out looking
new. Includes recipe card.
Purchase any
Cookie Mold or Shortbread Pan on this page and get the Paper Making Book
by Brown Bag Paper Art Book for only $7.50.
IDEAS wanted
- send us a photo of what you made using the techniques found in this book
to info@sugarcraft.com and we just might use the photo on our web site
AND send you a $10.00 gift card.
Subject to
availability. While supplies last, no return, refund or exchange. All sales
final.
Gingerbread Family Cookie Mold cut apart
5 3/8W x 3 3/4T
#01501
$25.00
Mouse w/Basket Cookie Mold 4 1/2W x 4T
#01534
$25.00
Gingerbread Man Cookie Mold 6T x 4 1/4W
#02691
$25.00
Helpful Hints.
*You
must drop items above into your shopping cart before going any further,
if you wish to purchase them.
Shortbread Cookie Molds... approx. 7-8-9 inch diameter Strolling
in the Scottish Highlands, you might be suddenly captivated by a delicious
aroma—freshly baked shortbread! Inspired by such memories, real or imagined,
these multi-cookie ceramic pans add the embellishment to each luscious
piece of shortbread. All pans come with simple recipes and baking instructions,
and can also be used to make ornaments of baker's clay or cast paper. Easy
to use. You bake the shortbread right in the pan then turn out decorative
treats. All of the pans come in a gift box and with detailed instructions
and recipes. The pans are made in America!
Helpful
Hints
.
Thistles
Cookie Shortbread Pan
What could
be more appropriate than traditional Scotch Thistles for homemade shortbread?
This pan makes eight buttery triangular pieces – each decorated with a
thistle, butterflies and bees. Includes sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet
and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02205 $29.99
Flowers and Berries Cookie
Shortbread Pan
Inspired by an early 20th century
butter plaque, this pan makes 9 pieces of shortbread decorated with different
flowers or fruits. Includes sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet and complete
instructions listing recipes.
#02202 $29.99
Wild Flowers Shortbread Cookie
Pan
Unusual octagonal pan makes 8 triangular
pieces of shortbread. 2 each of 4 stylized floral designs. Includes sturdy
gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02206 $29.99
Butterflies Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Each segment of this octagonal pan
shows a different butterfly or flower, and together, they create a complete
picture. Includes sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions
listing recipes.#02212 $29.99
Snowflakes Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Delicate snowflakes decorate each
segment of this square shortbread pan. You can "paint" the images with
a little egg white and powdered sugar wash, then dust the snowflakes with
a little coarse sugar for added sparkle. Includes sturdy gift box with
recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02211 $29.99
Irish Lace Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Make delicate "Petticoat Tails"
of buttery shortbread… delicious, elegant, easy as can be. Includes sturdy
gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
8 slices
#02219 $29.99
Circle of Hearts Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Eight heart shaped pieces embossed
with beautiful flowers for the spring seasons. Includes sturdy gift box
with recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes. #02213 $29.99
Tea Time Cookie Shortbread Pan
Four fanciful teapots and teacups
celebrate the very civilized tradition of afternoon tea and cookies. Includes
sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02217 $29.99
Christmas Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Nine beloved Christmas images dress
up delicious shortbread for the holidays. (pan shown on the left) Christmas
Star no longer available. Includes sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet
and complete instructions listing recipes..
#02902/seasonal $29.95
Holiday Star Shortbread Pan 5 diamonds and 5 triangles, each
decorated with a Christmas image.
#02904/seasonal $29.99
Alpine Flowers Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Stylized flowers inspired by Alpine
folk art decorate the 9 segments of this square shortbread pan. Includes
sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02218 $29.99
Norwegian Woods Cookie Shortbread
Pan
Each pan bakes 16 delectable shortbreads;
8 small diamond shaped pieces decorated with a pine tree and 8 triangular
pieces, each with a tiny reindeer running and leaping. Includes sturdy
gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02906 $29.99
Celtic
Knotwork Cookie Shortbread Pan
styles may
vary
Intricate
knotwork, inspired by the famous Book of Kells, graces the segments of
this shortbread pan. There are four different designs, two of each pattern.
Includes sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet and complete instructions
listing recipes.
#02209 $29.99
British
Isles Cookie Shortbread Pan
Scotch Thistles,
Irish Celtic Knotwork, a Tudor Rose and a Welsh Dragon decorate the segments
of this very special shortbread pan. Includes sturdy gift box with
recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02214 $29.99
Farm Animals
Cookie Shortbread Pan
Nine familiar
animals and birds decorate the segments of this shortbread pan. Each square
piece of shortbread has a different image. Includes sturdy gift box with
recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02215 29.99
Meadow Flowers Shortbread
Pan
A pretty shortbread pan that bakes
up 8 heart-shaped cookies. Each cookie decorated with a different Meadow
Flower. Your shortbread pan will bake shortbreads that are perfect for
Valentine’s Day, Weddings, Mother’s Day, or any time you want to let someone
know that they are dear to you. Includes sturdy gift box with recipe leaflet
and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02012 $29.99
Picture coming soon
Carousel Cookie Shortbread Pan
Includes sturdy gift box with
recipe leaflet and complete instructions listing recipes.
#02222 $29.95
Helpful
Hints For Molding Cookies- Be sure you have followed one of the recipes
we give. They are formulated to taste good and to work with cookie molds.
EASY AS 1-2-3-4
Be sure you chill the dough. This makes
it much easier to handle. The one exception is the Chocolate Cookie recipe.
Don't chill it. This is particularly true of the recipe given in the older
recipe booklets which call for melted chocolate as an ingredient, rather
than cocoa powder. If you chill this recipe, the dough becomes crumbly.
It still bakes up into great tasting rolled cookies, but it will fall apart
if you try to make molded cookies.
Using a pastry brush
and just a tiny bit of cooking oil lightly oil the mold.
Be sure to oil the mold very lightly.
I even take a paper towel and wipe out as much of the oil as I can before
I flour the mold and tap it to remove the excess.
All you want is a thin film of oil.
Remember, it is the flour that is acting as the separator, not the oil.
If you have too much oil on the mold, it will act as glue, and your dough
will definitely stick.
If your dough does stick, clean
it out of the mold.
Use a dry, stiff brush to scrub
it all out, then re-flour your mold, but don't re-oil it first.
The oil from the shortening in the
dough will leave enough oil on the mold to hold a film of flour.
You will re-flour your mold before
each cookie, but you will not re-oil it during a baking session.
Don't be timid about bopping the
edge of the mold.
Once you flour your mold and pat
in the dough, hold the mold perpendicular to a wooden or plastic cutting
board (I prefer plastic), and rap it sharply several times to release the
dough.
The mold should not break if you
are holding it perpendicular to the cutting board.
Un-mold the cookie onto your baking
sheet, re-flour the mold, and repeat.
When you bake your cookies, be sure
to use an ordinary, ungreased baking sheet.
The double layered, insulated cookie
sheets produce cookies that are cake-ier and that lack detail.
To clean your mold at the end of
the baking session, scrub it with a vegetable brush in a pan of hot, soapy
water, or put it in the dishwasher.
Helpful
Hints for Perfect Shortbread
Shortbread is so easy
to make, and so utterly delicious.
The simplicity of the butter, sugar,
flour recipe can’t, in my opinion, be beat.
To make yours come out perfectly
every time, there are just a few simple directives to follow:
Bake your shortbread in the top
third of your oven.
This way you won’t get too much
bottom heat that will cause the bottom of the shortbread to overcook before
the top is done.
To make sure that your shortbread
releases from the pan cleanly, be sure it is completely cooked in the middle
before you remove the pan from the oven.
Directions for shortbread baked on
a cookie sheet often tell you to cook the shortbread only until the top
of the cookies just barely begin to color.
This is not the case with shortbread
made in one of the Brown Bag Cookie Art Shortbread Pans.
Since you will be cooking your shortbread
in the top third of the oven, you will get some top browning as the cookie
bakes.
The surface of the shortbread should
be a toasty light brown when it is cooked.
It should never appear raw or slightly
opaque in the middle.
If it is under-baked in the middle,
it will probably stick in the pan when you go to unmold it.
Be sure to let the shortbread cool
in the pan for 10 minutes before you flip the pan over to unmold it.
This gives the delicate cookie a
chance to firm up a bit.
After cooling for 10 minutes, hold
the pan parallel to and 1” above a wooden or plastic cutting board, face
down, and unceremoniously drop it.
This jars the shortbread, and it
drops right out of the pan.
Slice the shortbread into serving
pieces using a thin, sharp knife, while it is still hot.
If you wait until it cools, it will
become flaky and too fragile to cut cleanly.
Cut-Apart Cookies A number of our cookie molds produce
several designs each time you un-mold a single, large cookie. We call these
Cut-Apart Molds. You can either turn out and bake the large cookie, or
you can cut the segments apart before baking. We suggest doing this. Un-mold
the dough onto a baking sheet as usual and then carefully slice between
the segments with a sharp kitchen knife. Slide the smaller cookies apart
to bake. This way, each smaller cookie develops nice, clean, evenly browned
boarders, and you wind up with several medium sized cookies, all with different
designs each time you un-mold a large cookie.
Peanut
Butter Cookie Bones! Recipe idea for the fall...
Kids love lots of things, including cookies, Peanut butter, and a good
joke. This fall, as you pack up
school lunches, give them all three. Peanut Butter Cookies made in the
shape of large doggie bones.
Their friends will probably think that your kids are eating Great Dane
sized treats made for the
family canine, mistakenly packed by a sleepy mother. What fun! You will
know that you are secretly
giving your kids a tasty dessert that is good for them, full of extra protein
from peanut butter and
egg. But don't tell them?
Peanut Butter Cookies
½ cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg, NOT extra large
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon cream
2 cups flour (scoop the flour from the bag, then level the measure)
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the peanut butter and stir well.
I use ordinary commercial
peanut butter in this recipe because the consistency is always the same.
If you use fresh ground
peanut butter make sure it has about the consistency as the ordinary supermarket
variety. You will
also need to add a pinch of salt if the peanut butter you are using is
unsalted.
Now stir in the egg and vanilla. Stir in 1 cup of flour, the cream, then
the rest of the flour. Knead the
dough for a minute, then refrigerate it for about an hour. Using a Cookie
Bone ceramic cookie mold
(or any other, for that matter), form the cookies as directed in your recipe
booklet, or refer to the
section on this web site titled
Bake your cookies on an ungreased baking
sheet until they are a toasty brown, with edges that are darker than the
rest of the cookie. Remove
the cookies from the baking sheet while they are still hot, and let them
cool completely on a rack
before packing them up into lunch boxes.
Shortbread for the
Holidays
Orange Poppy Seed Shortbread
A contemporary twist for an old favorite...
½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 cup unsifted all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
Cream the butter. Cream in the powdered sugar and the orange zest, then
the poppy seeds.
Now work in the flour. Knead the dough on a very lightly floured surface
until it is smooth.
Lightly spray your shortbread pan with a non-stick vegetable oil spray.
Firmly press the dough
into the pan, working from the center out. Prick the entire surface of
the shortbread with a folk,
and bake right in the pan in a 325 to 350 oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or
until it is lightly browned.
Be sure the center of the shortbread is completely cooked and doesn't look
a little opaque or
“doughy.”
Let the shortbread cool in the pan for 10 minutes before you flip the pan
over on to a cutting
board. If the shortbread doesn't come right out, hold the pan about 1”
above the board and tap
one edge sharply. The whole shortbread should drop out on to the cutting
board.
Slice the shortbread into serving pieces while it is still warm, using
a thin, sharp knife.
Let the pan cool before washing it in the sink or dishwasher.
Orange Flower Cookies
Fresh, light and fragment with the
smell of fresh oranges, these delectable cookie are sure to become one
of your favorites.
½ cup softened butter
¾ cup sugar
1 "large" egg (NOT "extra large"
or "jumbo")
1 Tablespoon orange rind, grated
fine
1 Tablespoon orange liqueur, preferably
or 1 Tablespoon
orange juice
2 cups All-Purpose Flour (dip your
measuring cup into the bag, scoop up flour, then level the cup with the
back of a knife)
¼ teaspoon salt
large pinch grated nutmeg
Cream the butter and sugar together
until they are light, either by hand or with a mixer set on the slowest
speed. Stir in the egg, the grated rind and the orange liqueur. Now mix
the salt and the nutmeg with the flour. Stir the flour mixture into the
butter mixture. Knead the dough for a minute on an unfloured surface until
it is smooth, then refrigerate for 20 minutes before forming the cookies
as directed in the section of our web site called ?Helpful Hints For Molding
Cookies?.
Bake the cookies on the top rack
in a 350 degree oven until the edges are browned and the detail of the
cookie looks a little toasty. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
Edible "Painted" Cookies
A friend of mine from North Liberty,
Iowa told me how to make these beautiful cookies. She calls them ?stained
glass? cookies because the colors can be as vibrant as those found in stained
glass windows; a beautiful image. And the cookies are delicious.
You will need:
freshly baked cookies, cooled completely
1 egg white
½ cup powdered sugar
set of paste-type food colors
toothpicks
brushes*
In a small bowl, whisk the egg white
until it is frothy, then stir in the powdered sugar. Paint the cooled cookies
with a thin layer of this icing glaze, using a soft pastry brush. You want
a thin but complete coating of glaze on your cookies. This will seal the
cookies and form a ?ground? for the painting you will do with the food
colors. Let the glaze dry completely.
Using tooth picks, place tiny dabs
of food color around the edge of a plain plate. Leave an open space in
the center of the plate to mix your colors. (I usually use a white paper
plate to make cleaning up easy.) This will be your ?painter's pallet?.
Place a glass of water beside your plate of colors.
When your cookies are dry, you can
paint them with whatever food colors or mix of colors you want. Be sure
to thin the colors with lots of water, as they are very concentrated. You
can always make them darker, but you can’t make them lighter.
NOTE: Be sure you use a set of brushes
that you reserve for food use only. Many water colors and acrylic paints
contain toxic ingredients that can become lodged in the metal ferrels that
hold the bristles to the handles of brushes. I find that good quality watercolor-
type brushes are available at craft stores much more reasonably than similar
ones found in art supply stores.
Classic Shortbread by Lucy Natkiel
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar (unsifted)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour (unsifted)
Using the back of a large spoon,
cream the butter until it is light. Cream in the powered sugar, then the
vanilla. Now work in the flour. Knead the dough on an unfloured board until
nice and smooth. Spray the shortbread pan very lightly with a non-stick
vegetable oil spray. Put the ball of dough in the middle of the pan, and
working out from the center, firmly press the dough into the pan. Prick
the entire surface with a fork, and bake the shortbread right in the pan
at 325 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, or until it is lightly browned.
Be sure that the middle is thoroughly cooked and doesn't look slightly
opaque or the shortbread might stick in the pan.
Let the shortbread cool in the pan
for about 10 minutes before you loosen the edges with a knife and flip
the pan over onto a wood cutting board. If the shortbread does not come
right out, hold the pan upside down over the cutting board and firmly tap
one edge of the pan against the board. This should loosen the shortbread
and it should drop out. Cut the shortbread into serving pieces while it
is still warm.
Let the pan cool before washing it
in the sink or dishwasher.
Maple Walnut Shortbread Our Personal Favorite
Please note: This recipe makes a
double batch. You can either bake two pans-full at a time, if you have
two pans, or you can make one recipe's worth of dough and use only half
of the topping and chopped nuts. The other half of the topping keeps in
in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
2 recipes of Classic Shortbread
3/4 cup (6 oz. or 168 g.) light
brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup (2 2/3 fluid oz, or 80 ml.)
pure maple syrup
2 Tbs. (a little more than 1/2 oz.
or 18 g.) flour
1 yolk from a "medium" or "large"
egg (not an "extra large" egg)
2 cups (8 oz. or 226 g.) chopped
walnuts
Prepare and bake the Classic Shortbread
as directed. While it is cooking, mix the light brown sugar, the syrup,
the flour, and the egg yolk in a small bowl.
When the shortbread is lightly browned,
remove the pans from the oven and spread half of the syrup mixture evenly
over the top of each. Sprinkle the chopped nuts all over the syrup mixture,
being sure to cover the surface thickly. Gently press the nuts into the
topping.
Return the pans to the oven and continue
baking an additional 15-20 minutes. It would seem as though you might burn
the shortbread underneath the topping if you bake it this much longer,
but you won't.
As soon as you remove the pans from
the oven, run a knife around the edge of the shortbread. Let the shortbread
cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Again, run the knife around the
edge of the pans to loosen the shortbread and make sure none of the sugar
is holding the cookie in the pan.
Flip the pans over onto a wooden
cutting board. If the shortbread doesn't come right out, and it probably
won't, hold the pan upside down over the wooden cutting board and firmly
tap one edge of it on the board several times until the shortbread releases.
Cut the shortbread into serving pieces
while it is still warm. The nuts and "topping" will now be on the bottom
. . . an interesting twist.
Let the pan cool before washing it
in the sink or dishwasher.
Almond Shortbread by Lucy Natkiel
These are delicate, elegant cookies,
perfect for special celebrations.
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1 cup less 2 Tablespoons unsifted
all purpose flour
Place the almonds and 1/2 cup of
the flour into a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Grind the
nuts to a fine meal, using off and on pulses. Add the rest of the flour
and pulse to mix.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter.
Cream in the powdered sugar and the almond extract. Now, work in the flour-nut
mixture. Knead the dough on a very lightly floured surface until it is
nice and smooth.
Molding
Chocolate in Your Brown Bag Shortbread Pan You can use your Shortbread Pan
to mold exquisite chocolates. It is very easy.
Place the clean, oil-free, perfectly
dry shortbread pan in the freezer to chill for at least an hour.
Melt ¾ or 1 pound of molding
chocolate (see note below) , broken into small pieces, in a double boiler
over hot water. It is important not to have the water boiling, so keep
an
eye on it. Stir the chocolate gently as it melts. After the chocolate has
melted, allow it to cool until it is just warm, but still fluid, stirring
occasionally.
Remove your shortbread pan from the
freezer. Quickly pour all of the chocolate into the pan, spreading it evenly
to the edges. Return the pan to the freezer. After about 10 minutes, remove
the pan from the freezer, turn it over and tap one edge of it on the counter,
holding one hand under the chocolate. The finished chocolate will fall
right into your palm.
Hold a large, un-serrated kitchen
knife under hot running water for a minute. Very carefully start cutting
the large chocolate into serving pieces, pressing down ever so gently,
so that the heat of the knife does the work. Re-heat the knife before each
cut.
A word about chocolate - Molding
Chocolate differs from regular chocolate in its fat structure. It is easier
to work with, and the finished chocolates don’t have to be refrigerated.
You can mold good quality regular chocolate in your pan (NOT chocolate
chips – they will stick terribly), but you might have a little more trouble
getting it to release. It depends on the particular chocolate. And be sure
to refrigerate the finished candies, or they will develop an chalky appearance
or “bloom” after about a day.
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread - You
can also dip the points of wedge-shaped baked shortbreads into melted chocolate
for an extra glamorous dessert. Any of the shortbread varieties taste good
with the addition of a little chocolate.
CUSTOM
CERAMIC COOKIE SHAPES - Summit exact drawing by fax to 513-863-4934
include name, address and email address for corresponding. Allow 4 to 6
weeks from receipt of art for delivery. As always, the tooling fees along
with all other charges would have to be prepaid in advance. No samples
are available.
SHORTBREAD PANS
Minimum: 600 pans
Shipping: Direct to you on pallets
with 300 per pallet.
You will be responsible for all
assembling at your own facility.
1. TOOLING COST: This
"quote" will include MOST shapes and designs.
Execution of a design drawn by another
party, plus the mold work, master and working ram dies - $1,700.00
Development of a custom design, plus
the mold work, master and working ram dies - $2,200.00
2. COST PER UNIT: This "quote"
will include MOST shapes and designs.
Without gift box, including recipe booklets
(shipped separately) $15.00 x 600 = $9,000.00
With gift boxes and including recipe
booklets (shipped separately) $16.00 x 600 = $9600.00
3. SHIPPING COSTS: To be determined
by the freight company used. You may request inside delivery or a lift
gate if no dock is available. We can not give any details, other than it
may cost several hundred dollars.
COOKIE MOLDS
Minimum: 500 molds
Shipping: Direct to you on pallet.
1. TOOLING COST: This
"quote" will include MOST shapes and designs.
Execution of a design drawn by another
party, plus the mold work, master and working ram dies - $1,500.00
Development of a custom design, plus
the mold work, master and working ram dies - $1,500.00
2. COST PER UNIT: This "quote"
will include MOST shapes and designs.
Includes satin ribbon tied on booklets.
$9.85 x 500 = $4,925.00
3. SHIPPING COSTS: To be determined
by the freight company used. You may request inside delivery or a lift
gate if no dock is available. We can not give any details, other than it
may cost several hundred dollars.
A Favorite
Please note: This recipe makes a
double batch. You can either bake two pans-full at a time, if you have
two pans, or you can make one recipe’s worth of dough and use only half
of the topping and chopped nuts. The other half of the topping keeps in
in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
2 recipes of Classic Shortbread
3/4 cup (6 oz. or 168 g.) light
brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup (2 2/3 fluid oz, or 80 ml.)
pure maple syrup
2 Tbs. (a little more than 1/2 oz.
or 18 g.) flour
1 yolk from a “medium” or “large”
egg (not an “extra large” egg)
2 cups (8 oz. or 226 g.) chopped
walnuts
Prepare and bake the Classic Shortbread
as directed. While it is cooking, mix the light brown sugar, the syrup,
the flour, and the egg yolk in a small bowl.
When the shortbread is lightly browned,
remove the pans from the oven and spread half of the syrup mixture evenly
over the top of each. Sprinkle the chopped nuts all over the syrup mixture,
being sure to cover the surface thickly. Gently press the nuts into the
topping.
Return the pans to the oven and continue
baking an additional 15-20 minutes. It would seem as though you might burn
the shortbread underneath the topping if you bake it this much longer,
but you won’t.
As soon as you remove the pans from
the oven, run a knife around the edge of the shortbread. Let the shortbread
cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Again, run the knife around the
edge of the pans to loosen the shortbread and make sure none of the sugar
is holding the cookie in the pan.
Flip the pans over onto a wooden
cutting board. If the shortbread doesn’t come right out, and it probably
won’t, hold the pan upside down over the wooden cutting board and firmly
tap one edge of it on the board several times until the shortbread releases.
Cut the shortbread into serving pieces
while it is still warm. The nuts and “topping” will now be on the bottom
. . . an interesting twist.
Let the pan cool before washing it
in the sink or dishwasher.
Painted Shortbread
It’s easy to add a little food color “paint” to your shortbread to highlight
designs. You will need:
Freshly baked and thoroughly cooled
shortbread
1 egg white
½ cup powdered sugar
paste-type food colors
tooth picks
dessert size plate, preferably white
brushes*
Note: It is important to use clean
brushes that are reserved for use with foods ONLY. Many watercolor and
other paints contain ingredients that may be toxic.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg white
until it is frothy, then stir in the powdered sugar. Brush the tops of
your shortbreads with a thin layer of this glaze. This will seal the top
of the cookies, creating a “ground” for the painting you will do with the
food coloring. Allow the glaze to dry completely.
Prepare your pallet. Using the tooth
picks, place a small dab of the different food colors around the edge of
the plate. Start with pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, etc.,
moving through the spectrum.
When the glaze on your shortbread
is completely dry, paint the cookies whatever colors you want from your
food color pallet. Use water to thin the colors. You can mix the food colors
to any shade in the empty center section of the plate. Generally, pale
colors look best.
Helpful Hints for Perfect Shortbread Shortbread is so easy to make, and
so utterly delicious. The simplicity of the butter, sugar, flour recipe
can’t, in my opinion, be beat. To make yours come out perfectly every time,
there are just a few simple directives to follow:
Bake your shortbread in the top third
of your oven. This way you won’t get too much bottom heat that will cause
the bottom of the shortbread to overcook before the top is done.
To make sure that your shortbread
releases from the pan cleanly, be sure it is completely cooked in the middle
before you remove the pan from the oven. Directions for shortbread baked
on a cookie sheet often tell you to cook the shortbread only until the
top of the cookies just barely begin to color. This is not the case with
shortbread made in one of the Brown Bag Cookie Art Shortbread Pans.
Since you will be cooking your shortbread
in the top third of the oven, you will get some top browning as the cookie
bakes. The surface of the shortbread should be a toasty light brown when
it is cooked. It should never appear raw or slightly opaque in the middle.
If it is under-baked in the middle, it will probably stick in the pan when
you go to unmold it.
Be sure to let the shortbread cool
in the pan for 10 minutes before you flip the pan over to unmold it. This
gives the delicate cookie a chance to firm up a bit. After cooling for
10 minutes, hold the pan parallel to and 1” above a wooden or plastic cutting
board, face down, and unceremoniously drop it. This jars the shortbread,
and it drops right out of the pan.
Slice the shortbread into serving
pieces using a thin, sharp knife, while it is still hot. If you wait until
it cools, it will become flakey and too fragile to cut cleanly.
Molding
Chocolate in Your Brown Bag Shortbread Pan You can use your Shortbread Pan
to mold exquisite chocolates. It is very easy.
Place the clean, oil-free, perfectly
dry shortbread pan in the freezer to chill for at least an hour.
Melt ¾ or 1 pound of molding
chocolate (see note below) , broken into small pieces, in a double boiler
over hot water. It is important not to have the water boiling, so keep
an eye on it. Stir the chocolate gently as it melts. After the chocolate
has melted, allow it to cool until it is just warm, but still fluid, stirring
occasionally.
Remove your shortbread pan from the
freezer. Quickly pour all of the chocolate into the pan, spreading it evenly
to the edges. Return the pan to the freezer. After about 10 minutes, remove
the pan from the freezer, turn it over and tap one edge of it on the counter,
holding one hand under the chocolate. The finished chocolate will fall
right into your palm.
Hold a large, un-serrated kitchen
knife under hot running water for a minute. Very carefully start cutting
the large chocolate into serving pieces, pressing down ever so gently,
so that the heat of the knife does the work. Re-heat the knife before each
cut.
A word about chocolate
Molding Chocolate differs from regular
chocolate in its fat structure. It is easier to work with, and the finished
chocolates don’t have to be refrigerated. You can mold good quality regular
chocolate in your pan (NOT chocolate chips – they will stick terribly),
but you might have a little more trouble getting it to release. It depends
on the particular chocolate. And be sure to refrigerate the finished candies,
or they will develop an chalky appearance or “bloom” after about a day.
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread
You can also dip the points of wedge-shaped
baked shortbreads into melted chocolate for an extra glamorous dessert.
Any of the shortbread varieties taste good with the addition of a little
chocolate.
Molding
Chocolate in Your Brown Bag Shortbread Pan