Melting Moments Too

 

The wonderfully high butter content of these shortbreads makes them an ideal Winter treat. Unfortunately they are not so good for baking in the height of Summer.

The Melting Moment shortbread base doesn't contain a lot of sugar, this makes the biscuit very short in texture. The majority of the sweetness comes from the icing used to sandwich the shortbread together. Depending on your preference for sweetness the icing can be adjusted to contain more or less sugar. The icing pictured above is Raspberry Buttercream but lemon, vanilla, coffee or orange would also be delectable. 

In a world where dough & biscuits don't get eaten before they should be this recipe makes 13 completed Melting Moments. 

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour.

Ingredients

Shortbread

200 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

125 g Butter (chopped & cold)

20 g Icing sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Extra Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour

Icing

65 g Butter (softened)

65 g Frozen Raspberries

100 g Icing sugar (sifted)

Extra icing sugar for dusting

Method

Thermomix

Put all ingredients into the TM bowl.

Mix for 1 min at speed 4.

Check that all ingredients are incorporated, if not briefly mix again. The mix should just come together as a dough.

Stand Mixer 

Cream together the butter, icing sugar & vanilla extract.

Add to the creamed mixture the Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour.

On a low speed mix together all ingredients until the dough just comes together.

Rolling out the dough

Put the dough on a sheet of baking paper. Bring it together with your hands. If you need to, kneed the dough to incorporate any remaining flour. If the dough is sticky add a little of the extra Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour to it & need the dough to incorporate the extra flour. The dough should be ready to roll out.

Place dough between two sheets of baking paper. To ensure the shortbread is even in thickness follow this tip. Find four placements (dinner setting) place two of them on top of each other on either side of the dough (Two of my placemats are 8 mm high). The placemats can be on top of or underneath the pieces of baking paper. I find it easier to work with the dough when it is between two sheets of baking paper. When rolling out the dough ensure the rolling pin is wide enough to span the dough and part of the two top placemats. My rolling pin is large – 61 cm from handle to handle. Initially when rolling the pin may not necessarily rest on the placemats, however, when the dough is the same thickness as the placemats it will. At this stage the dough should be all the same thickness. Put the dough (still in between the baking paper) onto a flat tray and put it into the fridge for approximately 10 mins - we don't want the dough to be too cold.

Cutting & Cooking

Turn the oven on to 140o C.

Line 1 tray with baking paper.

Bring out the cold dough. Gently lift off the top piece of baking paper, put it back down on the dough. Holding on to both sheets of baking paper on both sides of the dough gently flip the dough over. Lift off the top piece of baking paper - do not discard. 

Using a cutter of your choice cut out the shortbread and place them on a baking tray. For the Melting Moments pictured above I used a round cutter with a 38 mm diameter. When you have cut out as many shapes as possible bring the dough together and roll it out again between the two sheets of baking paper. This dough likes to be kneeded. Continue cutting out shapes in the newly rolled dough. If the dough is cold enough the shapes will still be easy to pick up & transfer to the baking tray. Repeat until you can't cut out any more shapes. 

The length of time required to bake the shortbread will depend on the size of the cutter you have used & your oven. The cutter I used (38 mm diameter) produced 26 shortbread that were ~ 13 g each. I baked these for 35 mins turning the trays halfway through baking.

Allow the shortbread to cool completely before starting the icing.

Making the Icing

Thaw/warm the frozen raspberries & mash them with a back of a fork. Put the mix through a sieve & collect the puree (~35 g) 

Cream together the softened butter & 1/3 of the sifted icing sugar. 

When the mixture is light & fluffy stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in another 1/3 of the icing sugar. 

Continue creaming the butter & icing sugar.

When the mixture is light & fluffy add 1/3 of the raspberry puree.

Continue creaming the mixture.

When the raspberry puree has been fully incorporated, stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the last of the icing sugar.

Continue creaming the mixture.

Add in another 1/3 of the raspberry puree.

Continue creaming the mixture.