Rosemary Shortbread

Christmas of 2023, Shawn Hughes brought these worlds-best shortbread as a hostess gift. I ate one and hid the rest in the freezer - I kid you not. I ate all of them over the next couple of months - sneaking into the freezer and savouring every morsel.

I made them myself for Christmas 2024 and they were easy and turned out really well. I will never make another shortbread - this is it for me!

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 c flour
  • 2/3 c white sugar
  • 1 tbsp fresh rosemary very finely chopped
  • 1 tsp + 1 pinch of kosher salt
  • 1 c butter - very cold cut into small pieces

Icing

SAUCE

toppings

dressing

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Heat oven to 325ᵒ.
  2. Grease and line a 8" square pan with parchment paper.
  3. Chop rosemary - I use a coffee grinder (make sure it doesn't taste like coffee).
  4. Pulse the flour, sugar, rosemary and salt in a food processor.
  5. Add the butter and pulse until the dough starts to come together.
  6. Dump the dough into the prepared pan - at the point you are going to think something is wrong - it's too dry. Have faith!
  7. Press the dough into the pan with the back of a spoon.
  8. Once it's nicely packed, prick it all over with a fork. If it lifts a bit, just pat it back down.
  9. Bake for 45-50 mins.
  10. Cut it into squares while it's still a bit warm.

TIPS & HINTS

In step #4, it's important not to run to food processor - you should be pulsing until the dough is like lumpy sand - it should NOT be smooth. Once you can squeeze a handful together and it stays - it's good.

After it's baked but still warm, remove it from the pan to cut it. I put a cutting board over the cake pan, flipped it out and then did that again with a second cutting board to flip it right side up. It is much easier to cut it nicely on a cutting board (as opposed to in the cake pan).