Lime Basil Shortbread by @MysteryMacRae

 

We love shortbread here at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, and over the years we’ve offered many variations on that theme. That goes to show how easy these simple cookies are and how easy it is to adapt a recipe to make it your own.

This summer the basil growing on our back stoop is tall, dark, and delicious, and I have lime zest in the freezer, so here’s yet another recipe for anyone who loves shortbread as much as we do.

Lime Basil Shortbread

 

Ingredients

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

Zest of 1 lime

5 large fresh basil leaves

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups plus 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

 

Directions

This method makes 24 cookies.

(See my note after these directions about plans for working with the dough differently next time.)

Make basil-lime sugar by pulsing basil, lime zest, and sugar in a food processor until pulverized. Reserve 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on cookies before baking.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, salt, and all but the reserved basil-lime sugar. Add the flour in two additions, mixing the dough until it comes together.

Press the dough into a 5-inch square, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm. Dough can be refrigerated for two days or frozen for a month.

Preheat oven to 325℉ with one rack in the top third position and another in the lower third. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Remove dough from refrigerator, remove plastic wrap, and place dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, hit the dough evenly until it begins to flatten. Supposedly, by hitting the dough, you’re warming and flattening it slowly, thus preventing it from cracking. This method worked but took a LONG time. So long that I finally went away and came back after the dough did a little warming up on its own.

Started the hitting/warming process with my French rolling pin.

Now I'm using my lovely red plaid rolling pin.
Turns out I'm a switch hitter when it comes to warming dough with this method. 

Roll the dough into a 9-inch square. Cut into 24 rectangles and put 12 on each prepared baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart. Sprinkle cookies with reserved lime-basil sugar.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until cookies begin to turn golden brown around their edges, rotating sheets from top to bottom half-way through baking.  

Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes then move them to cooling racks and cool completely.

Note: While I don’t object to using a rolling pin to hit cookie dough, hitting the dough to warm it without cracking it took far too long. More than half an hour. Nope. Next time I’ll skip refrigerating the dough until firm, only to then loudly and laboriously warm it again. Instead, after mixing the dough, I’ll press it into two pie pans, sprinkle them with the reserved sugar, bake them until their edges are beginning to turn golden brown, take them from the oven and immediately cut them into wedges (still in the pie pans). Shortbread is simplicity itself and the petticoats (wedges) will be just as tasty and pretty cute, to boot. I'll also try upping the lime and basil a bit, too. 

🌿🌿🌿

If you like shortbread, scones, bookstores, mysteries, and Scotland, my Highland Bookshop Mysteries might be your cup of tea. 

If you like your mysteries with a posse of clever sleuths, a Southern accent, fiber crafts, and a ghost, give my Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries a try.

And you might like these, too. 

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.