Stamped Shortbread Cookies #39 from Uncomplicated Chef

Stamped Shortbread Cookies #39 - made dough June 7, 2024 from Uncomplicated Chef

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon almond extract (I used vanilla)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and powdered sugar until well combined and fluffy.
2. Add vanilla and mix to combine. Add flour and mix on low speed until just combined.
3. On a large piece of parchment paper, form dough into a ball. Place another large piece of parchment paper over it and roll out dough into a large piece 1/4 - 1/3" thick. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
4. Remove dough from refrigerator. Stamp and cut out cookies. Freeze stamped cookies for at least 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Space stamped cookies evenly on prepared baking sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

This was the second of three recipes I made for the families staying at Ronald McDonald House last week. The first was the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake. Then I made 2 different recipes for stamped cookies and this is one of them. I don't usually make stamped cookies in the summer as it's often too hot to work with the cookie dough easily enough for stamping. But I wanted something fun for both the siblings of the children getting treatment as well as the kids themselves who were at the hospital. So I had to use my Snoopy stamps for this. Making stamped cookies in hot weather is possible but requires a bit more time and care. 

First, be careful that "room temperature" butter isn't too soft to work with or your dough will be too soft and greasy, not to mention harder to stamp well. I cut the butter into tablespoon-size pieces right out of the refrigerator, toss them into the mixing bowl and start mixing. Even then, it was so hot when I made this, that the dough was rather soft and had to be refrigerated before I could even stamp them.

Second, many recipes call for patting the dough into a ball, wrapping in plastic wrap and chilling before trying to roll out. As long as your dough isn't too soft, I find it easier and more efficient to roll the just-mixed dough between two pieces of parchment paper then chill it. The main thing you have to watch is not chilling it for too long as if the dough is too firm, it'll be harder to make clean, crisp stamped impressions. Too soft or warm and the dough will stick to your stamp(s). The sweet spot for me is about 10-15 minutes of chilling time but you do have to work quickly as this dough softens and warms within a few minutes out of the refrigerator.

The stamped impressions held decently well after baking but this dough is better suited for stamps with larger impressions and not finer details as the smaller details will tend to blur out during baking. Fortunately, Snoopy was easily recognizable in these cookies.

The taste was good as I had used Kerrygold butter for a more buttery flavor. Texture-wise, this was more of a shortbread texture in that it had a snap and a drier mouthfeel. But that was to be expected since this is billed as a shortbread. So it delivered its promise. The picture above is a combination of both the stamped cookie recipes I made (second recipe to follow in the next post) but the other pictures are just of this recipe.