Shortbread cookies are a delicious treat or dessert and very easy to make at home. We discover how with this wonderful and simple recipe.
Who doesn’t like cookies? We are faced with a wonderful, unique sweet or dessert that can be eaten at any time and that can usually be taken alone or accompanied (either with jams, chocolate, or even soaked in milk, coffee or hot chocolate). Although its most distant origin is found about 10,000 years ago, when the nomads prepared -by mistake- a kind of cereal paste at high temperature, thus becoming a food with a high energy intake and very easy to transport.
We must go back to the Ancient Age, specifically in the 3rd century in Rome, when Apices prepared a cooking of cereal dough on both sides, baptizing it with the name of “Bis Coctum” (very similar to the word biscuit in English, which as you will surely know what cookie means). But it was with the arrival of the middle Ages that the popular sweet received the name “biscuit”, probably due to the inspiration in a sweet consumed in France in the 13th century known as galette.
However, did you know that it was the Medicis who gave the cookies that sweet, elegant and refined state that some of them have today? Already at that time they began to be made with more ingredients, although their industrial preparation did not occur until the 18th century.
The origin of shortbread cookies
But within the different cookies that can be made today, there is no doubt that one of them stands out above many: the delicious butter cookies, that crunchy wonder that surprises not only because of its flavor and characteristic aroma, but because in reality they are tremendously easy to make at home.
To discover the origin of the first shortbread cookies, we must travel to the 12th century, when the first written recipe was collected. Its origin is British, where they are traditionally and popularly consumed to accompany tea.
Butter Cookies Recipe
As we mentioned earlier, butter cookies stand out not only for being delicious, but because they are actually very easy to make and prepare at home. You only need the ingredients that we propose below, and follow the steps that we indicate. Do you dare to elaborate them?
Ingredients:
- 350 gr. wheat flour
- 250 gr. of butter
- 145 gr. of sugar
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
- Sugar for dusting (optional)
Preparation of butter cookies:
First, in a large bowl, mix the butter at room temperature with the sugar, until you get as light dough as possible. When the dough obtains this texture, add the teaspoon of vanilla essence.
Before continuing, it is time to preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Then sift the wheat flour and mix it with the butter and sugar dough. It integrates well, for which it is very important that the flour is added little by little, mixing continuously until the dough is as uniform as possible.
Shape the cookies and place them one by one on a baking sheet where you will have placed parchment paper (to prevent them from sticking to the tray).
Finally, put in the oven and let the cookies cook for approximately 10 minutes at 180ºC. Ready! You can already enjoy them.
