The 12 days of shortbread have come and gone and we have tried them and all and gained an appropriate amount of weight in the process but while it was worth every pound of butter, thankfully it’s over. Not quite. While experimenting with different shortbread variations some variations were tried and either were amazing but just too late to make it to the top 12 or just weren’t as good as any of the other 12. Whatever the reason, they were still made and sampled with just as much as love and care as the other and contained just as many calories as any of the top 12, so deserve an honourable mention.
The first one is a classic variation that I have seen and tried before. While it is great and can more than hold it’s own in the top 12, for this particular top 12 shortbread variations list, it just was not exotic enough. Earl grey is a wonderful, traditional English tea as is buttery shortbread, so it seems seems natural to mix these two classics. Note that in the recipes to follow only in the first recipe will the Classic Canada cornstarch shortbread recipe ingredients and directions be included. Since all shortbread recipes are variations of this recipe, subsequent recipes mentioned in this post will only include the shortbread variation’s ingredients and any additional or specific directions associations with these additions ingredients.
PrintEarl Grey shortbread
ingredients
- 1 c flour
- 1/2 c cornstarch
- 1/2 c icing sugar
- 3/4 c butter
- 1 tbsp of Earl Grey loose leaf tea or 2 tea bags of Eary Grey tea opened
Directions for Earl great shortbread
- Cream together first four ingredients.
- Mix in Early Grey tea leaves.
- Roll into 1 inch balls.
- Flatten with fork onto baking sheets.
- Chill for 30-60 minutes in fridge.
- Heat oven to 300F.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until edges and bottom of cookie are golden brown.
Another chocolate variation that was tried was Chocolate Cherry Almond. One of my tasters told me that anything with cherries was good. Another taster said anything with chocolate was good. I can’t disagree with that. And of course, anything with nuts is always good. This gives, Chocolate Cherry Almond Shortbread, another winner but for some reason got lost in all the butter and crumbs and has ended up here.
Chocolate Cherry Almond Shortbread
Ingredients
- 1-4-1/3 c cocoa powder (dark, milk or semi sweet, your choice)
- 1/2 c chopped Maraschino cherries
- 1/2 c slivered almonds
Bacon. Need I say more? Maple syrup. Now, need I say more? Maple Bacon is a flavour that needs to be in a cookie so why not in shortbread? This variation was among one of the first batch of variants. First, I tired artificial bacon bits. Big mistake. I used crushed maple candies for the maple content. The candies seems to work but the fake Bacon had to go. The second version of Maple Bacon shortbread included real bacon pieces and crushed maple candy. This version’s recipe is below and seems to be a better representation of Maple Bacon in shortbread.
Maple Bacon Shortbread
Ingredients
- 1/2 c crushed maple candies
- 1/2 c chopped up bacon (use real cooked bacon not artificial bacon bits)
- 2-4 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
- maple butter (optional substitution for all or part of the butter in the Classic Canada cornstarch shortbread recipe)
This variation I would certainly try again but with slight changes. For example, I would try replacing all of part of the butter in the basic Classic Canada cornstarch shortbread recipe with maple butter which can usually be purchased in stores that carry maple syrup products including some grocery stores. Adding in some actual maple syrup is something I would try as well. This would make the dough stickier so additional flour would had to be added to offset this. I would definitely have larger bits of bacon and maple candies so a good taste of the bacon and maple is received when a bit is taken and of course for better visual appeal. After all, we eat with our eyes first!
Unicorns seem to be everywhere. Everyone is looking for that “unicorn” or trying to be a unicorn. A unicorn shortbread seemed inevitable. Exactly what is a unicorn shortbread? Is it plain shortbread that looks a certain way? Is it shortbread with a unique flavour? Or, is it a combination of the two? The recipe below is just my interpretation of Unicorn Shortbread which to me, at the time, meant a combination of bursts of flavour and colour.
Unicorn shortbread
Ingredients
- 1/4 c crushed candy cane
- 1-2 tbsp chocolate sprinkles
- yellow food colouring (or your colour of choice)
- red food colouring (or your colour of choice)
- 1-2 tsp lemon extract
- 1-2 tbsp red sprinkles (or your colour of choice)
- 1-2 tbsp green sprinkles (or your colour of choice)
direction for unicorn shortbread
- Cream together the four ingredients for the Classic Canada cornstarch shortbread recipe.
- Divide the dough into three (3) equal portions.
- For the first portion, mix in the crushed candy canes and chocolate sprinkles.
- For the second portion, mix in the yellow food colouring until desired colour is reached; add in lemon extract, adding more or less to taste; add in red sprinkles.
- For the third portion, mix in the red food colouring until desired colour is reached; add in greed sprinkles.
- Roll each portion in round balls of equal size so that you have the same number of round balls for each portion. e.g. 8 balls.
- On a cookie sheet, starting with the third portion of balls, smush into a round disk; place a ball from the second portion on the first smushed ball and smush down; place a ball from the first portion on the second smushed ball and smush down. Now you have a “3-tired smushed” cookies. Repeat with remaining balls. Note: the three portions may be combined in any order.
- Flatten each disk one last time with a fork.
- Continue recipe as for Classic Canada cornstarch shortbread recipe.
As with many accidents the result can be a happy occurrence. the following variation was an accident and a happy one at that in the end. How did this happy accident come about? I had mixed together the dough for two variations, the Cheddar rosemary thyme shortbread and has some plain shortbread dough mixed up to which orange extract was going to be added and then chocolate chips to create the orange chocolate shortbread. That was the original plan. I handed the two bowls of dough to my “sous chef” who put the orange extract into the Cheddar, rosemary, thyme shortbread dough resulting in a happy accident and our next variant worthy of honourable mention, Cheesy, orange, rosemary, thyme shortbread.
Cheesy orange rosemary thyme shortbread
Ingredients
- 1/2 c grated cheddar
- 1-2 tbsp orange extract
- 1-2 tbsp rosemary
- 1-2 tbsp thyme
It seems I didn’t take a picture of these. But the moral of this accident was, if you don’t have a sous chef get one. You will end up with happy accidents in the form of shortbread variations worth trying!
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