Earl Grey Cookies with Lemon Glaze (Shortbread Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good shortbread cookies? ›

The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour.

Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly.

So, if you are looking for a more "traditional" way to serve Earl Grey tea, try a classic Earl Grey blend like Mindful Morning and add a squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of sugar (or better yet, infused sugar).

The key with shortbread is not to overhandle it. Make the dough exactly as instructed, but don't mess around making shapes or over rolling the dough - you will end up with delicious but tough biscuits. Stretching and pulling the dough activates the gluten in the flour, making chewy cookies and not crisp ones.

Confectioner's sugar.

This is the secret to the tender texture and perfect sweetness of these cookies.

But in this shortbread cookie recipe, it really makes a difference. Chilling the dough helps the cookies hold their shape. If you don't chill your shortbread dough, the cookies will spread as they bake.

-Chill unbaked shortbread cookies in the fridge for 30 minutes prior to baking in a 350 degree oven for 12-18 minutes.

Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here. You'll see lots of shortbread recipes using granulated sugar.

Traditional shortbread recipes are 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour.

How to tell if shortbread is done? ›

Bake the shortbread until it's a light golden brown across the top surface and a deeper golden brown around the edges, about 35 minutes. Remove the shortbread from the oven and turn it out of the pans and onto a clean work surface.

Use unsalted butter for balanced flavour. Unsalted butter was traditionally used in baking because it was a superior product to salted - salt is used as a preservative so unsalted butter was thought to be fresher.

Earl Grey tea pairings

Americans typically drink their Earl Grey with milk and sugar, but Chatterton prefers it the British way — with lemon and sugar. "Milk has a tendency to do strange things to black tea," he says. "It dulls the flavor a bit. It's not as crisp and sharp.

The optimum temperature for the perfect cup of Earl Grey tea is 90 degrees Celsius. Place your tea bag into your favourite cup, before pouring the hot water directly over it. Allow the tea bag to steep for 2-5 minutes – depending on how strong you like it and be guided by the citrus aroma.

Some teas, like masala chai and bubble tea, taste better with the addition of milk. However, when it comes to Earl Grey tea, people have different preparation preferences. In England, most people take it with some sugar and lemon. But in North America, it's become common to take Earl Grey with a splash of milk.

It's all in the quality of the ingredients. With such a short ingredient list, the quality makes a big difference. The perfect shortbread cookie should be crumbly, but not dry, buttery but not greasy and sweet but not sickly.

Unsalted Butter: As the base of nearly all shortbread recipes, butter supplies these classic cookies with flavor and softness. Make sure you use room temperature butter that's still cool to the touch. If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense.

Traditional Scottish shortbread is a simple recipe made with sugar, butter, flour, and salt. Other shortbread styles will include leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda, which makes them crisp instead of crumbly like traditional Scottish shortbread.