Shortbread. Recipes and methods of preparation.

Many housewives love to cook pastry from puff pastry and it's not accidental, because the products made of it are friable, tender and very tasty. You do not have to be seven wits in the forehead to make a short dough. The recipe is based on a combination of fats (margarine, butter or animal fat), eggs and flour, as well as seasonings - they can vary depending on the tastes and preferences of the hostess, but the base remains unchanged. The simplest methods of preparing the dough are very common among the housewives, but it does not hurt to remind some of them - it is so easy and quick to prepare. Many housewives have their own recipe and in their own way prepare shortbread dough.

The recipe for "Traditional"

The flour is sifted by a slide on a wooden board, salt, sugar, baking powder and seasonings are poured on top. Then you need to make a groove in the flour, pour in the liquid inside, drive the egg, put pieces of butter. With a long knife, cut the flour with the products and quickly mix the dough to form a homogeneous mass. Too long to knead the dough is not worth it, it's better to roll it into a bowl and clean it for half an hour in the fridge. If you add yeast to the recipe, just before adding it to the dough, you have to grind the yeast with a spoonful of sugar, then you will get a delicious yeast short dough. The most delicious is the dough, where flour in relation to oil is used in a ratio of 2 to 1.

The recipe for "Original"

Fats are beaten in a separate dish with sugar, eggs, salt, sugar, seasonings, baking powder and flour are added. The dough is quickly kneaded and biscuits or pies are baked from it immediately. The dough is soft enough, so it is divided into pieces and spread on a baking tray with a thin layer or squeezed through a pastry syringe. To roll out such a dough, it should be kept for several hours in the refrigerator. It is best to roll it in a cool room, flour should be used moderately, only then you will get a delicious short dough. The recipe can be taken any that you like, but you do not need to roll out the dough for more than 10 minutes, otherwise the fat will melt, and the products will turn out to be stiff.

Lubricate the baking sheet for shortbread cookies, so the fatty dough does not stick to the sheet. Pies and cookies before baking should be smeared with eggs, milk or cold water, this is done so that the dough is evenly baked and not swelled with bubbles. Fat for a short dough should be cold, and it is recommended to take butter and animal fat in equal proportions. Water should be exactly as much as recommended. To prepare a delicious short dough, the recipe must be observed. The shortest dough for triangles works best.

Recipe "Classic"

The classic recipe suggests using 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour for the short-dough. First, the butter and sugar are mixed, then flour is added to this mixture. Modern variations of this recipe do not exclude the addition of seasonings and eggs, but in the original they are not allowed. The dough for the triangles should be thick enough, so it should not be made yeast (yeast simply can not grow in such conditions). The main leavening agent of the short dough is butter, it should be at least 25%, it is better to take flour with an average amount of gluten, for splendor you can use a chemical baking powder (baking soda). No lumps of flour or oil in a well-dough test should not be. The optimum cooking temperature for baking from a short pastry is 230-250 ° C.

In the same way, you can prepare a puff pastry. Recipes (Puff pastry pies) can be found in each hostess and each one will have its own variation. Whatever you choose a short-pastry recipe, most importantly, do not forget to add a pinch of your love to it, only then the pies will be tender, and the cookies will be delicious. Bon Appetit!