Juicy Post: Charlene Sinkin’s Christmas Shortbread

Cookie Inspirations

When we were in the exhausting throes of the Christmas season at La Cuisine, Charlene, who is one of the co-conspirator cooks for Kitchen Detail, would bring in her jewel-like boxes of shortbread cookies for us, all elegantly festooned with lovely ribbons. The cookies were always neatly packed in cellophane bags to insure freshness and (no more than three to bag) lack of breakage, then swathed in beautiful tissue and paper confetti, always tied with a simple, perfect bow. Larissa and I would always save her boxes, wrappings and ribbons and re-use them on gifts the next year. And maybe the year after that if I can snatch them back fast enough. 

Charlene had fallen in love with the laser cut rolling pins from Valek in Poland, which Larissa would order for the shop. Charlene has confessed to owning six. Copies exist, but I’d argue that Valek’s are the best quality in the depth of the cuts and finesse of the design. Plus, the creator ships directly from Poland in a remarkably short period.  Herewith is a video with Charlene’s wonderful shortbread in a classic  vanilla flavor, a chocolate version and a mixed spice one that may be my personal favorite. Below is the master recipe with some general instructions and the instructive video was created by Nils Bertrand, the videographer for Kitchen Detail.

A Video Shows The Way

The base recipe and the two variations that Charlene chose from a page full of different possibilities are from an old Martha Stewart magazine. Once you have made your dough (and it is not hard to make all three) note how Charlene places and loosely wraps her dough in a cling-wrap square package. Then she rolls the dough into a larger square until it fills the cling wrap package.She folds the cling wrap into a larger package than the actual rough square of dough. Then she rolls it out into a larger square or rectangle, which fills the package up to the creased edges. It is so much easier to have this shape, You can then freeze the dough if you are not going to roll and cut cookies in the next day or two. 

 Save your scraps and roll them out again into a rough rectangle in the cling wrap and pop them back into the fridge to cool down. And then re-roll until you have used every smidgen of your dough. 

Variations On A Theme

The spice shortbread is made by replacing the caster sugar with 1/2 cup Light Muscovado Sugar (we  use the brand India Tree). You will sift 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (we prefer the Vietnamese cinnamon as it is more pungent) a pinch – literally – of ground cloves, 1 teaspoon ground ginger,  and a few grindings of white pepper into the flour. Proceed with the basic recipe.

You can create a chocolate variation by sifting 1/2 cup cocoa powder into the flour. (We prefer Cocoa Barry Extra Brut, Michel Cluizel or Valrhona). These brands give you a richer cocoa flavor than we  experienced with Droste or Hersheys. European brands are usually alkalized or “Dutched”.

Some Clarifications

In the video, Charlene shows you how the butter-sugar mixture should appear on a spatula when it is ready for the flour. The sugar should be totally dissolved into the butter – another reason why caster or confectioners’ sugar works better than granulated. Once you have followed her procedure on shaping the dough in the oversized plastic wrap package, don’t be afraid of flouring the counter and the top of your dough. The Stretchtite brand that we used to carry in the shop is still her favorite, as it does not wrinkle up when placed on a flat surface, and it seals better than the other brands.

Pre-rolling your dough as shown in the video makes it  easier  to roll out the dough first with a normal smooth pin and then with the Valek pin.With this method, you are more quickly expanding a rectangle, then if you had not pre-rolled your dough before chilling.   You do not want to have a thin dough. True shortbread is a thicker cookie than a sugar cookie -just under a quarter inch is fine. Plus, when you roll out with a Valek pin, you are pushing down and slowly across the dough, and you end up with a more deeply embossed cookie. 

Always lightly flour your embossed pin before rolling it slowly and firmly across the dough.  Charlene uses a pastry brush to apply the flour, and lightly taps off the excess. This keeps the dough from rolling up around your pin and the details of the laser design will be revealed in sharper detail as you can see from both our banner photo of the spice cookie mixture and from the video of the vanilla or chocolate based shortbread.  Sprinkle  your cut cookies with white caster sugar before baking. It will give a little sparkle to the finished cookie but not detract from the design – in fact the caster sugar highlights the lovely design on the baked cookie. 

In the oven, rotate the sheet after six minutes. Check for doneness after  12 minutes. You may want to bake them a bit longer.  They should still be somewhat  soft to the touch and slightly golden on the deges and underside. Allow them to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Wrap them up beautifully, then move fast to gather up discarded packaging to reuse the next time!