Irish Butter Cookies by Aoife of The Daily Spud Blog
Ingredients:
- 225g Kerrygold Butter, softened
- 100g Granulated Sugar
- 2 tbsp Orange Zest
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 275 g Plain Flour (alternatively, for a slightly sandier texture, use 225g strong flour and 50g rice flour or cornflour)
- 0.5 tsp Ground Cardamom seeds
- To Finish
- 1 Egg, Beaten
- 1 tbsp Demera Sugar for Sprinkling
- A Little Icing Sugar for Dusting (optional)
Directions:
Beat together the butter, sugar and orange zest until light and creamy.
Add the egg yolks and beat until just combined.
Whisk together the plain flour (or bread flour and rice flour if using) and the ground cardamom and then incorporate into the butter mixture just until it forms a stiff dough.
Divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces and roll each into evenly-sized logs, around 4cm in diameter. Wrap in cling-film and chill for at least two hours or (even better) overnight.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 180C and line your baking sheets with parchment paper or grease them.
Slice your logs evenly into discs, about 0.5cm thick, and lay on the baking trays, leaving about 2cm between each piece. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
Bake the butter cookies for 12-15 minutes or until just starting to brown at the edges. Turn the trays around half-way through baking and, if you have trays on two different shelves, swap the shelves you’re using half-way through baking too.
Allow the cookies to cool for about 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack until such time as you can no longer resist eating them. For presentation, you can dust them with a little icing sugar if you should feel so inclined. Makes 50 - 60 cookies.
The Variations:
You can omit the orange zest and cardamom and add 0.5 tsp vanilla extract or try another extract, such as almond, or perhaps try adding 2 tbsp lemon zest plus 1 tsp ground ginger or more to taste.
