Stamped Cookies #14 - Pumpkin Spice Shortbread Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread Cookies (stamped cookies #14) - made dough November 18, 2021 from Curly Girl Kitchen 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into tablespoons

2 tablespoons cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, powdered sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.
2. Cut cold butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add cream and vanilla and toss with a fork to distribute evenly throughout.
3. Dump the mixture onto a clean work surface and gather together to work liquid into dough. Work until soft dough forms; do not overwork dough.
4. Lightly flour and roll out into 1/4" thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters and/or cookie stamps. Cover cookie cutouts and freeze for at least an hour.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Depending on the size of your cookie cutouts, bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let cookies cool completely.

I almost didn't want to post this as it's one of those near-epic fails that I had. And you can tell I didn't want to post this because it's labeled stamped cookies #14 and I (erroneously) blogged stamped cookies #15 before #14. Oops. But, Freudian slip notwithstanding, long ago, when I first started this blog, I promised I would post what I've tried, whether it turned out or not. So I shall. But let's put this in the "not" column.

I got my first inkling this wasn't going to work out for me when I realized the directions were similar to making pie crust. And we already know how that's been working for me so far. Exhibit A: Apple Pie #1. Exhibit B: Apple Pie #2. 'Nuff said. Similar to my failures at pie crust making, I'm defeated by how to get the dough to come together when it's relatively dry. Curly Girl does warn this is floury but that it should come together. HAHAHAHAHA. Me: Hold my beer.

This didn't make many cookies as, to be honest, I ended up dumping the drier parts of the dough which seemed like mostly flour and rolled out what parts of the dough had come together enough to be barely rolled out. And given the dryness of the dough, it also didn't take kindly to being pressed with cookie stamps and didn't hold impressions well at all so I only ended up using cookie cutters on them. I highly encourage you to click on the post title to take you to the original blog post from Curly Girl Kitchen so you can see how these were supposed to turn out. Yeah, I know, mine look nothing like those.

The only thing that (somewhat) saved these is the taste was pretty good. Not my favorite because I'm not a pumpkin spice girl but for those who like pumpkin spice, this isn't a bad variation on shortbread. Just brush up on your pie crust making skills before you try this and you'll probably make it a lot better than I did. If you don't, keep your sense of humor and it'll be fine.