"Have a Heart" (Or Two) Shortbread Cookies

Is it Spring yet? 

I think this has got to be one of the longest winters we've had in a long time. All of this snow and ice isn't for the faint of heart. 

I've really got a bad case of cabin fever, and in fact, I think this weather is making everyone feel a little disheartened. 

Mr. Goo Shoes and I wanted to get out of the house on Friday night, so we went for a quick bite to eat. I didn't want to go too far, because I had my heart set on watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics, and wanted to get home on time. 



Mr. Goo Shoes did not share my enthusiasm:

"My heart isn't into watching that. 
I have absolutely NO interest in it at all." 

So I was surprised that when I turned on the TV in the Family Room, he sat down to watch.  I thought he would go right upstairs to his man cave.

I headed into the kitchen to whip up a batch of shortbread heart cookies, and some cupcakes (I'll share that recipe next week), while I was watching the ceremony. It's great to be able to see the TV from the kitchen, so I can multi-task. 

Mr. Goo Shoes was parked on the couch reading the stats of each country as their team walked out: how many athletes they had; what the population of each country was, etc.

You could have fooled me that he watching halfheartedly.

"Team USA is coming now! Can you 

turn off the mixer for a few minutes?

Oh, sure, not a problem. It wasn't like I was right in the middle of whipping egg whites until they formed soft peaks, or anything. 

But he seemed so interested in seeing them march in -- which totally surprised me -- that I figured egg whites be damned...if their peaks were pooped, I'd toss them and start over. I sat down to watch with him. 

As soon as the Americans finished their entry, Mr. Goo Shoes said, "I'm going upstairs." Which left me alone and broken-hearted...ok, ok, that's not at all how I felt...I'm exagerating. 

The cupcakes were in the oven, and it was time to make the cookies.  

My heart always skips a bit when I think of shortbread cookies. I was going to make them the usual way, with white sugar, but I had a change of heart, and substituted brown sugar instead. I used the same basic shortbread recipe as the Shortbread Sparklers, from Fine Cooking's 2004 Holiday Magazine.

And, I made them red. I know that there are red food colorings out there that have no taste, but I used the regular kind (McCormick's) that I always use in my red velvet cakes. I've never experienced a weird tasted, but I'm going to look for the other kind anyway. Use as much as you want to get your desired color. I used about 3 tablespoons.

I thought I made a mistake by not adding the food coloring to the wet ingredients. Maybe that would have been better? I added it after I blended in the dry ingredients, and freaked out a bit that it would leave big red clumps in the dough, but it did eventually blend in. I kept the mixer on a slower speed, so that I didn't over-mix the dough. 

If you make the cookies as red as mine, you will not be able to easily tell when they are golden around the edge. Carefully lift a cookie to look at the bottom. You can see a slight golden color if you look hard. They should not be brown on the bottom, so check periodically. All ovens are different  -- my cookies were done after 30 minutes. 

I decorated the cookies with white Wilton Cookie Icing in a squeeze bottle. It was easy to squeeze out just the right amount. 

With a 3-inch cookie cutter, I got about 20 cookies. 

BROWN SUGAR SHORTBREAD COOKIES
Recipe from Fine Cooking Magazine

8 ounces (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  

Combine the butter, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer bowl (use the paddle attachment) or a large mixing bowl.  

Mix on low speed until the butter combines with the sugar but isn't perfectly smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the flour and mix on low speed, scraping the bowl frequently.

Add the food coloring. Mix until the dough has just about pulled together, about 3 minutes; don't over mix.

Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, to about 1/4 inch thick. Aim for uniform thickness to ensure even baking. 

Use a cookie cutter and cut out shapes as close to one another as possible.  Press the scraps together, roll them out, and cut out more cookies. If the dough becomes sticky, refrigerate it briefly.  

Arrange the cookies on two parchment-lined baking sheets and refrigerate until chilled, at least 20 minutes.  

Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 300°F.

Bake the cookies for 30 minutes to 1 hour.  

After 15 minutes, swap the position of the baking sheets and rotate them 180 degrees for even baking. 

If the cookies are done before 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 275°F for the remaining batches; if they take longer than one hour, increase the temperature to 325°.

Eat them to your heart's content. 



Oh, and one more thing.  

Happy Valentine's Day...from the bottom of my heart. 

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