Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Irish Butter Shortbread Cookies

Yum
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)
Kerrygold: 82 % fat

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!

Irish Butter Shortbread 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.

Sharing this at:

Weekend Potluck



20 comments:

  1. I love butter and have to admit that a super high amount of fat doesn't bother me (at least not when it has to do with cookies!) These cookies look so pretty, I would almost hate to eat them
    Thanks for being a part of the Fill The Cookie Jar group!

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  2. My husband loves butter cookies! I usually put cinnamon and sugar on top of mine, but yours look quite delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Hugs to you!

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  3. how festive! anything composed of that much butter simply has to be delicious. :)

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  4. My mom swears by Irish butter. I will have to try out the Organic Valley one, I know a few stores around here that carry that brand.

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  5. Yummy! We found Irish butter at Sam's Club in Eau Claire. Sam's Club has a little cooler with Irish butter, cheese and a few other Irish goodies.
    Your cookies look great.
    Carla

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  6. I bet these are beyond delicious - classic, buttery cookie - I would love to celebrate the Luck of the Irish with there!

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  7. They look so buttery and melt in mouth!

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  8. Oh I bet these are delicious! I'll have to try using a higher fat butter next time I'm making cookies!

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  9. Cool! Thanks for the butter info, I had no idea of the difference. Your cookies look wonderful, and I want to try the recipe.

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  10. How cute are those! They look so good too! I just bought some KerryGold butter, excited to try it!

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  11. I NEED these cookies! Wow so buttery good!

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  12. Thanks for visiting Thistle Cove Farm; I followed you home -lol-. I make a similar shortbread cookie but use my home churned butter. Last August I churned 45 pounds of butter, enough to last for a while and to gift, with a very high butter fat content...Jersey cows make the difference both in fat content, taste, flavor and in churning. It takes me 20 minutes to churn Jersey cream while something like Holstein milk can take an hour (and work me to death in the process!). I've used KerryGold butter, it's delicious!

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  13. My in-laws like shortbread, so we'll have to try these out for them.

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  14. I make these cookies all the time with kerrygold. Everyone loves them. I don't just save it for St.Patricks treat! Any shape cookie cutter works!! Love THEM!!!

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  15. They look delicious to me! Just perfect for the upcoming holiday...thanks a million for sharing with us at Weekend Potluck. Please come again soon.

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  16. I didn't know that about the difference in butters..... these look great... we love shortbread here. :)

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  17. Thank you for the tip of adding a little cream! I found this recipe on another site and had a crumbly mess on my hands. You saved the day!

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  18. Love how easy this recipe is! I added vanilla extract and it KINDA made a difference. Made them a tad sweeter but I like how they're not overly sweet. Also, I put them in the freezer for 5 minutes then put them on a pan with parchment paper and they didn't run, they kept their shape.

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