Today I decided to make these cute Iced Shortbread Cookies that are a recipe from my friend/neighbour Terry. The original name of these cookies are Merle's shortbread, and upon research I found that there's a cookbook called "Merle's Kitchen" by Merle Parrish, so I think it is most likely from that cookbook. This recipe overall turned out really well, however, it did end up taking much longer to bake then described.
The recipe called for only 18 minutes but it ended up taking about 28-30minutes. I also ended up raising the temperature to 320F instead of 300F, as it wasn't hot enough. the way to determine if the cookies are finished baking is based on if you can see light brown edges around the cookies. In terms of rolling out the dough, I used my hands to roll it into a log shape and then put it in the freezer for about 8-10 minutes to firm up the dough. The recipe calls for putting it in the fridge but I thought I would be able to speed up the process this way. I also covered it with saran wrap and split the dough into two. I also used a knife to cut the dough into separate cookies afterwards.
Since the cookies don't spread out too much, you can place them fairly close together on a baking sheet and this recipe makes about 80 small cookies. As for the icing, I decided to celebrate my parents' wedding anniversary by making royal icing from Rosanna Pansino's cookbook "Baking all Year Round". I then separated them into three bowls with one of them being white and the other two I dyed with a few drops of liquid food colouring (one was blue and the other I used red to make pink).
The recipe calls for about 5 minutes of mixing together in a stand mixer but I found that it only needed about 2-3 minutes, otherwise it becomes more like a cottage cheese/whipped cream texture. I then used a Wilton 3 icing tip and icing bag to write the letters and draw the different images. To do this, I separated the icing into the three bags based on the colour and then switched out the tip when necessary. For some of the cookies, I decided to use a different approach and use either red and white sprinkles or red, white, and green confetti sprinkles pressed into the tops of the cookies before they baked. Overall, both versions of the cookies turned out really well and I hope that you all enjoyed this review. Thanks for reading! Happy baking :)
You can find cookbook, "Baking All Year Round" by Rosanna Pansino that I used for the Royal icing at Amazon.ca, Simon & Schuster, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo.ca.
