Cranberry White Chocolate
Shortbreads
have a wonderfully rich and buttery flavor and are bursting with
dried cranberries and chunks of white chocolate. While shortbreads can
be made in various shapes and sizes, we will follow tradition here and bake
them in a round shape and then
cut the round into wedges, called "petticoat tails". The name
"petticoat tails" refers to the shape of the shortbread wedges which look like
the bell-hoop
petticoats worn by court ladies in the 12th century.
Shortbread is made with just a few ingredients; mainly butter,
sugar, and flour. So try to use a good quality butter, and
you can use unsalted or salted. You can add vanilla extract to
the batter or even a small amount of almond extract. And
while I have added dried cranberries, you could use dried
cherries. For the chocolate chips, I used white, but you
could also use semi
sweet, bittersweet, or milk.
Whenever you cut a round of shortbread into wedges, there
can be the problem of the tips of the shortbreads breaking
off. Dorothy Hartley in her lovely book "Food in England"
tells us that "Every cook knows how the pointed ends of cut
cakes and biscuits break off - so, after several centuries
of broken tips, someone evolved the cure: they cut a circle
out of the centre before baking......". If you like you can
follow Dorothy Hartley's advice and cut out the center
before baking. Or you can think of all those broken tips of
shortbread as the cook's treat.
Cranberry White Chocolate Shortbreads: Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place the oven rack in
the center of the oven. Have ready a 9 inch (23 cm) tart pan with a
removable bottom. Butter the bottom of the pan.
In the bowl of your electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle
attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar
until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract, if using.
In a separate
bowl whisk together the all purpose flour with the salt. Add
this mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and beat just until incorporated.
Fold in the dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Press the
shortbread evenly into the tart pan. Prick the surface of the
shortbread with a fork to prevent the shortbread from puffing up.
Place in
the preheated oven and bake until the shortbread has turned a golden brown
color, about 30 to 35 minutes.
Transfer shortbread to a wire rack to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before removing
from tart pan. Place the shortbread round on a cutting board and cut into 12
wedges. Cool completely on a wire rack.
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