Gluten-Free Shortbread
By Meaghen WalshPublished on May 23, 2019
Time
45 minutes, plus 1 hour drying and 1 hour cooling
Yield
Makes 16 wedges
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Do not omit the xanthan gum; it is crucial to the structure of the shortbread.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, mix flour blend, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Add butter and continue to mix until dough forms and pulls away from sides of bowl, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Place collar of 9- or 9½-inch springform pan on parchment paper–lined baking sheet (do not use springform pan bottom). Press dough into collar in even 1/2-inch-thick layer, then smooth top of dough with back of spoon. Place 2-inch biscuit cutter in center of dough and cut out center. Discard extracted dough and replace cutter in center of dough. Open springform collar, but leave it in place.
- Decrease oven temperature to 250 degrees and bake shortbread until top begins to turn pale golden and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and turn off oven. Remove springform pan collar. Use chef’s knife to score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread. Using wooden skewer, poke 8 to 10 holes in each wedge. Return shortbread to oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon, leaving 1-inch gap at top. Allow shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center (shortbread should be firm but giving to touch), about 1 hour.
- Transfer sheet to wire rack and let shortbread cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cut shortbread at scored marks to separate and serve. (Shortbread is best eaten on day it is baked, but it can be cooled and placed immediately in airtight container and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
Time
45 minutes, plus 1 hour drying and 1 hour coolingYield
Makes 16 wedgesIngredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
For a traditional shortbread recipe using all-purpose flour, one of the biggest issues is trying to avoid gluten development, which makes the cookies tough. Obviously this wasn’t going to be an issue with a gluten-free recipe, but without any gluten we had an entirely different problem: shortbread that was crumbly and had a coarse texture. Adding some xanthan gum provided structure so it wouldn’t crumble, and to ensure the shortbread held its shape during cooking, we pressed the dough inside a springform pan collar and baked it in the collar with the clasp open at the start. Swapping in confectioners’ sugar for the granulated gave the cookies the right sandy, rather than gritty, texture (resting the dough to hydrate the flour, as we’d done with several of our other cookies, wasn’t an option since the shortbread dough contains so little moisture). We wanted to pack in as much butter as we could, and we found that 14 tablespoons was the most fat our flour blend could handle. As for the baking method, to ensure our cookies cooked through without browning too much, we got the best results by preheating the oven at a high temperature, then turning it down to 250 degrees when we put the cookies in. We baked them briefly, just until they were golden, and then cut them (at this stage, they could be cut without shattering). Then we returned the cookies to a turned-off oven, propping the door open to ensure they would simply dry out. Still, they baked slightly unevenly. Stamping a small circle of dough from the center with a biscuit cutter guaranteed even baking.
Before You Begin
Do not omit the xanthan gum; it is crucial to the structure of the shortbread.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, mix flour blend, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Add butter and continue to mix until dough forms and pulls away from sides of bowl, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Place collar of 9- or 9½-inch springform pan on parchment paper–lined baking sheet (do not use springform pan bottom). Press dough into collar in even 1/2-inch-thick layer, then smooth top of dough with back of spoon. Place 2-inch biscuit cutter in center of dough and cut out center. Discard extracted dough and replace cutter in center of dough. Open springform collar, but leave it in place.
- Decrease oven temperature to 250 degrees and bake shortbread until top begins to turn pale golden and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and turn off oven. Remove springform pan collar. Use chef’s knife to score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread. Using wooden skewer, poke 8 to 10 holes in each wedge. Return shortbread to oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon, leaving 1-inch gap at top. Allow shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center (shortbread should be firm but giving to touch), about 1 hour.
- Transfer sheet to wire rack and let shortbread cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cut shortbread at scored marks to separate and serve. (Shortbread is best eaten on day it is baked, but it can be cooled and placed immediately in airtight container and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
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