Milk Chocolate Pots With Citrus Shortbread Food

CITRUS SHORTBREADS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 12 1/2-inch baking sheet pan, line with parchment paper, and butter the paper.
• Finely grate the skin (zest) off all 3 clementines, making sure you peel only the orange skin and not the bitter white pith. Puree the zest with 1/4 cup of the sugar in a food processor until minced, about 1 to 2 minutes.
• Whisk the flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar on medium, until light and fluffy, about 8 minutes. Add the clementine-sugar mixture and beat for another minute. While mixing on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not overwork the dough. Transfer dough to prepared pan, spreading it out as evenly as possible. Cover with plastic wrap, then press and flatten using your hands over the top to smooth and even out the dough. Cut the dough into bars about 1 by 3 inches with a sharp knife, while still in the pan. Prick a decorative pattern in the shortbreads with a fork or a wooden skewer. Bake until golden, about 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes and then re-cut the bars along the previous cuts. Let cool completely on racks. Store the cookies in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.
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MILK CHOCOLATE POTS WITH CITRUS SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it just boils, then pour it over the chocolate. Stir until smooth, then beat in the egg yolks. Tip the mixture into a jug, then pour into four individual pots and put in the fridge to set for at least 2 hrs.
• Meanwhile, put the flour, orange zest and butter in a large bowl and rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and egg yolk, mix gently and bring the biscuit dough together with your hands. Roll the shortbread out on a lightly floured surface until 1cm thick, then transfer to a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Leave to rest for 10 mins in the fridge.
• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/ gas 3. Bake for 23-25 mins until golden brown, then sprinkle with sugar. While still warm, cut into eight x 2cm biscuits, trimming off any excess, and leave to cool.
• When ready to eat, whip the cream to soft peaks, then spoon on top of the chocolate pots. Serve with the shortbreads on the side.

MILK CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD ROUNDS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer at low to medium speed until light. Gradually add flour until combined. Stir in chips by hand. IF dough seems dry or crumbly, it will stick together when shaped in your hands.
• Using the palms of your hands roll well rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into 1 inch balls. Place on a ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes. Cookies will be pale. Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing and dusting with powdered sugar.

SHORTBREAD COOKIES II

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
• Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in vanilla; add flour and mix well.
• Put through cookie press and form cookies onto baking sheets. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

STAMPED CITRUS SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Prepare the cookies: Add flour, cornstarch and salt to a medium bowl, and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• Combine butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Zest half the orange and half the lemon directly into the bowl. Reserve the lemon and orange for the glaze. Cream the butter mixture on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add vanilla and lemon extracts and beat on medium speed until well combined, scraping the bowl a few times as needed.
• Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. Scrape the bowl and fold a few times to make sure everything is well combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and chill until firm, at least 1 hour, and up to 3 days.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut dough in half and let one piece warm up for 30 minutes if it has chilled longer than an hour. Return the other half to the refrigerator. Portion the dough into pieces roughly the size of walnuts (a scant 2 tablespoons/about 35 grams), then roll each piece into a ball between your hands. One at a time, dip a ball of dough into flour and set on work surface. If dough balls soften too much, return them to the refrigerator to firm up for a few minutes. You want it cool, but malleable. Dip cookie stamp in flour, and press down on the ball of dough until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Remove stamp. (If dough sticks to stamp, carefully peel it off. Don't worry about excess flour as you will brush it off after chilling.) Trim the edges using a 2-inch cookie cutter, and transfer dough rounds to 2 parchment- or silicone mat-lined baking sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Once you have stamped out all the cookies, knead together the scraps to make a few more. Chill in the freezer until very firm, about 10 minutes. When cold, brush off any excess flour with a dry pastry brush.
• Bake until cookies just start to turn golden underneath, 12 to 14 minutes, switching the baking sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking time.
• Make the glaze while the cookies bake: Zest the remaining skin from the reserved lemon and orange into a small bowl. Add the confectioners' sugar, butter and orange juice and whisk until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add more orange juice. If it is too thin, add more confectioners' sugar. It should be the consistency of thin custard.
• Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, and transfer to a wire rack set over a parchment- or wax paper-lined baking sheet. Pick up a cookie, and using the back of a small spoon, spread a generous teaspoon of glaze on a cookie, letting any excess drip onto the next cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are glazed. Cool completely. Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

CITRUS SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Beat the butter and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts and orange zest. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the cranberries; mixing just enough to evenly combine.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal portions, then roll into logs about 7 inches long. Wrap each log in wax paper or plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Remove wax paper, and cut the cookie dough into 1/2-inch slices. Arrange the slices on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
• Bake in the preheated oven until firm but not browned, about 10 minutes.