Rosemary Grapefruit Shortbread

I love the simplicity of shortbread.  All you need is a few staple ingredients and an oven.  If you're an old hand at shortbread you'll probably be comfortable skipping right to the recipe itself, but if you haven't made them before, I have included a few basic notes to help you get the best results.  I've also written a bit of information about how best to work with the rosemary and grapefruit, including some tips for tweaking the quantities to adjust the recipe to your own personal tastes.

I will say right away that while these are rosemary grapefruit shortbread cookies, the grapefruit is a fairly subtle component. It's one of those ingredients that is notable in its absence, but tricky to pick out on its own.

There are ways to increase the grapefruit flavour in the cookies should you be so inclined.  You can add more zest to the recipe, but at a certain point it may start to have a textural impact.  Lots of zest can also contribute bitter, somewhat medicinal flavours that might not work well in the finished cookies.  Be sure to avoid getting too much of the white pith into your cookies, as it's quite bitter.  I like to use a cocktail citrus zesting tool to peel strips of zest, which I then mince or grind finely.

A much bolder, albeit more time consuming method, is to use finely diced candied grapefruit peel.  This will deliver more concentrated punches of grapefruit flavour (plus a bit more sweetness).  It also makes for a slightly fancier cookie! If you want to give this method a go, check out this recipe for candied grapefruit peel from the always lovely David Lebovitz.  You can substitute about 1/4 cup finely chopped candied grapefruit for the zest.

Other type of citrus can be substitute for grapefruit quite easily.  Lemon is a good option, but feel free to experiment and share your results!

Can't have rosemary grapefruit shortbread without rosemary! I tested this recipe with different quantities of rosemary, and the version I decided to post (2 teaspoons of rosemary) is nice and distinctive without being overwhelming. If you want to emphasize the rosemary a bit more, try about 3 teaspoons instead. Beyond this and you're getting into a pretty extreme rosemary flavour.  If you're using candied grapefruit (see above) you might also like to use the higher rosemary quantity for a bolder final flavour.

Rosemary is a powerful, but surprisingly versatile ingredient when used sparingly.  Unlike many herbs, the taste of rosemary doesn't really diminish much with cooking, so it can be used to great effect even in baked recipes like this one.  I only recommend using fresh rosemary in this recipe.  Dried rosemary has a stronger flavour, and the store-bought stuff is often ridiculously hard.  If you do have good dried rosemary and you want to try using it, use about 1/2 teaspoon, and make sure to grind it finely.

I use simple granulated (white table) sugar for my shortbread. Some people prefer to use powdered (icing) sugar for a softer, more melt-in-your-mouth texture, but I personally like shortbread to be a little more granular and crumbly. You can substitute powdered sugar into the recipe, but you'll want to make sure to do so carefully. Because powdered sugar is much finer, it can become very dense if packed, yet very airy if sifted. This means that you can't use a 1:1 volume substitution for granulated sugar.  Instead, you can substitute un-sifted powdered sugar at approximately a 7:8 ratio for granulated sugar. For this recipe, that translates to about 1/2 cup, minus a tablespoon. If you're baking by weight, you can simply follow a 1:1 conversion.

Finally, I would recommend caution if you're planning to use powdered sugar and a shortbread pan, as the softer finished cookie may be much harder to turn out in one piece.  I would err on the side of caution and aim for a more well-browned cookie for best results.

I generally don't feel the need to include extra starch in my shortbread recipes, but I've made an exception here because of the added moisture from the grapefruit juice.  The addition of a small amount of corn starch or rice flour (the two can be used interchangeably) helps to bind this extra moisture and make the finished cookies a little softer.  If you don't have either, you can use an extra 1-2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour as well, though the finished cookies may be just a bit harder and crispier.

I generally make my shortbread by hand-forming cookies, but earlier this year I lucked out and came across a beautiful ceramic shortbread pan in a thrift shop.  The unglazed ceramic pan is designed by Brown Bag Designs of Bedford, Virginia.  Their shortbread pans, cookie molds, and cookie presses have been beloved for decades, and the particular design I have (Hearts and Flowers) is back in production at the time of writing.  If you're a fellow Canadian who hates getting hammered by international shipping costs, you might want to pick one up from Lee Valley Tools - judging by the design, I would assume that they're made by the same manufacturer, though you only have the one Scottish thistle design to choose from.  If you like shortbread as much as I do, and you like making gifts for people (a wonderful tradition for Christmas - or any time, for that matter), I'm sure you'd love one.

If you're new to using a shortbread pan, there are a few tips that I think are worth taking into account.  First, the baking time is increased quite a bit over what you'd need for small cookies on a baking tray.  Because the pan itself takes time to heat up, and because the dough basically forms a single giant cookie, the overall baking time is going to be more than double what you'd need for smaller cookies.  The actual baking time will vary depending on your oven (and possibly your shortbread pan), but 40-45 minutes was about perfect for me.  If you watch the shortbread cook, you'll see the flaky, bubbly 'done' section migrate from the edges to the center.  Once this process has finished, you still want to wait until the cookie is well browned, but not burnt.  If you take it out too early, the center will be soft and unset, and the cookie will fall apart. Trust me.  If you feel like it's browning too quickly, but you're worried it's still not fully set, turn off the heat and let the shortbread sit in the warm oven for 5-7 more minutes.  Keep an eye on it.

To get the shortbread out of the pan, allow it to cool, then gently loosen the edges with a small knife.  Place a cutting board over top of the pan, then invert the whole thing carefully. It should come out fairly easily, but it may take a few gentle taps.

The quantity of ingredients used to make this recipe is largely based on convenience (i.e. 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar). This is easily halved or doubled, and it's a convenient quantity if you're making individual cookies. If, however, you're planning to use a shortbread pan similar to the one I used, it's worth noting that a 2/3 batch (which will yield almost exactly 1 lb of dough) will give you the best results.  You can reduce the servings slider on the recipe card from 24 to 16 cookies, or you can just make the full batch and bake the extras on a separate baking pan.   I'd choose the latter, because more cookies are always better.  In fact, if you want to really go all-in and make a bunch of these beautiful wedges to give as gifts, a double batch of dough will perfectly fill three pans.  Just make sure to cover and chill the extra dough in between baking batches.