Whole Wheat Shortbread | Baking with Dorie

The title of Dorie’s recipe is: Tenderest shortbread four ways. What makes them tender, as Dorie explains, is the confectioners’ sugar. in addition, it’s her discovery by mistake by putting two egg yolks in the dough which enhances the tenderness. Dorie’s recipe provides variations to make the classic, the whole wheat, the rye chocolate and the spelt-flax shortbread. I take the most rustic and earthy approach, I make the whole wheat shortbread.

Shortbread cookies are, as the name implies, short or crumbly in texture because the fat (or shortening) content is high. Typically, a traditional shortbread cookie uses one part sugar, two parts fat and three parts flour. Dorie’s tenderest shortbread really amps up the amount of butter to about 2.5 parts. With the extra egg yolks, no wonder these cookies are crumbly to the bite — without hardly any resistance.

What makes them tender also contributes to the fragile, soft and sticky dough. It’s tougher for the dough to hold its shape. As you can tell, the cookies come out looking more wonky than round.

The method: Combine confectioners’ sugar (80g) and butter (226g) and mix until the sugar is evenly distributed and the butter becomes light in color. A pinch of salt and lemon zest bumps up the flavor. One by one, beat in the egg yolks (2). Then fold in the flours (all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, 136g each) in one go and mix until a uniform dough forms. The flour components also include wheat germ (3 tablespoons), which I substitute with ground flaxseed. Finally, roll the dough into a log, chill and slice them about 1/2-inch thick.