Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies

It’s cookie swap time! The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap has once again reared its sugary head as hundreds of batches of delicious treats were sent around the country (and world, if I’m not mistaken) to hungry foodies everywhere. PLUS we helped raise money to support Cookies for Kids’ Cancer through each blogger’s donation/purchase of OXO’s “Good Cookie” Spatula.

This year I wanted to send The Food Poet, MarocMama, and Chopsticks and Measuring Cups something fairly straightforward, but still delicious. Into my mind popped the idea of a shortbread cookie. I thought I would switch things up by using brown sugar instead of regular, granulated sugar, and also threw in some freshly grated nutmeg for an extra touch of Christmas. Most recipes that have brown sugar listed as an ingredient intend for you to use light brown sugar as opposed to dark brown sugar—the difference between the two being the amount of molasses. Well I say, “Bring on the molasses!” and prefer dark brown sugar, but whatever you have on hand will do.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 large egg
• nonstick spray

Procedure:

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients and cut the butter into them. This can be done a couple of ways—the easiest is with a food processor (pulse until fine and crumbly), or you could also use a handheld pastry cutter.
2. Mix in the egg until the dough just begins to come together and stop working with it. If you mix too much (as was the case with my first batch of these), then the cookies will have a much different texture. Still delicious, but not shortbread.
3. Place the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, roll into a log, and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. This gives the dough time to rest and makes it easier to cut later down the road.
4. Preheat your oven to 350˚F.
5. Remove your cookie dough from the freezer and cut into about 1/4″ rounds. Lay them on a greased cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes.
6. Let the cookies cool briefly on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
7. Enjoy with a big glass of milk.

And before I forget, a HUGE thanks to Eating the Beats, Karis’ Kitchen, and The Dreamery Blog for all of the delicious treats (and great CD)! Also, be sure to check out last year’s recipe for my coconut chocolate chip cookies.