Cranberry Pecan Shortbread
A delicious star-studded cookie packed with flavour that simply melts in your mouth. You will need a stand mixer to make this cookie. You can bake the cookies all at once, or keep the logs in the fridge or freezer and bake as needed. This is a variation on Aunt Ester’s Shortbread, originally submitted by Chef Curtis Straub.
Makes about 36 shortbread
1 lb salted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups packed icing sugar
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
6 tbsp cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup granulated sugar, for dusting
In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and the icing sugar until fluffy.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt. Gradually add the mixture to the creamed butter, a third at a time on low speed. Increase speed to medium-high and beat the batter for a full 10 minutes. The batter will resemble heavily beaten whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Reduce the speed to low and add in the cranberries, pecans and vanilla. Combine well.
Tear off three long strips of plastic wrap. Divide the dough into three and place large spoonfuls of the dough along in the centre of each strip to create a log about 2” thick. Use floured hands to roughly shape the dough in a uniform log. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, using your hands to even out the shape of the log; refrigerate several hours, until firm. The dough can also be frozen at this point and baked later.
Preheat oven to 275°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Unwrap one of the logs and cut it into ¼” thick rounds. Dip both sides of each round in granulated sugar. Place on the cookie sheet. Bake for 35 minutes. Cookies will not brown – you want them to be white, like snow. Let cool on the pan before removing to a wire rack. Let cool on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining logs.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
Flammable kids' sleepwear, salmonella-contaminated chips: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for various items this week, including kids' bassinets, chips, and stoves. Here's what to watch out for.
Lyon-bound Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner from Montreal turns back midflight due to pressurization alert
Passengers heading from Montreal to Lyon, France on Friday were forced to return home and depart the next day after a pressurization indication was detected in flight.
U.S. ambassador 'not aware' of any plans for Trudeau-Trump meeting
Canada's Ambassador to the United States says she's 'not aware' of any plans for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with former U.S. president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump before the November American election.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
What we've learned so far in the Trump hush money trial and what to watch for as it wraps up
Testimony in the hush money trial of Donald Trump is set to conclude in the coming days, putting the landmark case on track for jury deliberations that will determine whether it ends in a mistrial, an acquittal — or the first-ever felony conviction of a former American president.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.