It's time to Fill the Cookie Jar! The theme for March is St. Patricks Day. I really wanted to make something new and different this year because in the past my St. Patricks day sweets are always mint, and I just don't have a huge love of mint. After much searching I learned about Irish Shortbread Butter Cookies.
All of the recipes for this cookie that I ran into were nearly identical, and all led back to
Rachel Gaffneys. With only 3 ingredients, it is such a simple recipe. But, one ingredient looked to be a challenge, Irish Butter. Apparently, Irish Butter has a higher fat content than "American" butter. Kerrygold seems to be the most common brand of Irish Butter, but here in "Small town USA", I could not find that. We do live less than 20 miles from Organic Valley headquarters, so that brand of products is easy to find. Our local co-op had Organic Valley European Style Butter, which is close as I was going to find to Irish. After a little research, I did learn this is the fat contents of the three butters I was comparing:
American: 80% fat (or possibly lower)
So, I ended up with the fattiest butter there is! Excited! The packaging even highlighted that this is "great for baking"! I kept getting more excited to try this!
The cookie dough didn't come together quite as easy as the original recipe indicated, so I added cream.
No point skimping on fat at this point, right?
I have never ever ever in my life tasted a cookie with as much buttery goodness as this cookie. They are definitely going to be a special occasion cookie, because I just can't have a cookie like this in the house very often! If you can find this butter, I highly recommend you try this recipe, and these lovely butter cookies.
If you are interested in joining
Fill The Cookie Jar group on facebook, fill out the form that can be found at
Fill The Cookie Jar. Each month we bake a different theme for the cookie.
We bake, we share and we enjoy our cookies!
(Adapted from:
Rachel Gaffneys)
1 cup Irish Butter, unsalted ( I used European Butter)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon, sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 - 2 Tbsp heavy cream, if needed
Remove butter from refrigerator 15 minutes ahead of time to soften. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
Cream butter and sugar, with paddle attachment of stand mixer. Turn mixer speed to low, and slowly add flour. Mix until dough forms a ball. Add cream, one tablespoon at a time, if needed to get dough to pull together.
On floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4" thickness, and cut with cookie cutter. Place on lined cookie sheets. Bake until just turning golden, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely.
Enjoy as is, or decorate as desired.
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