0:00
Hi everyone, it's Andrea from Movers and Bakers
0:02
Today I'm going to share with you how I make my delicious orange and cranberry shortbread
0:08
Let's get baking. Right, to start with, I'm going to put my flour and sugar into a large bowl
0:17
Don't forget, I will put all the ingredients and the quantities in the link below this video
0:22
Now, with my sugar, I'm not going to put all of it in here quite yet
0:26
I'm going to put most of it in, and the last little bit I am going to do
0:30
tip in with my cranberries. So the reason I do that is so that my cranberries can be spread out
0:36
evenly in my dough. So all I'm going to do with those, but the extra sugar is I'm just going to
0:40
give them a little toss in there just to coat them in the sugar. And that's just going to make sure that
0:46
when they go in with the flour and my shortbread mix, that they don't get stuck together and clump
0:51
together and I'll get a nice even spread of cranberries all the way through. Right, that's my
0:56
cranberries all mixed up. So in here, I've got my flour and my sugar. I'm just going to give that a very quick whisk together. Just to make sure
1:05
that my sugar and flour are really well mixed. Now to that I'm going to add my butter. My butter
1:10
has been cubed and it's been in the fridge so it is really, really cold. It is important with shortbread
1:17
with making shortbread that your butter is as cold as you can keep it and you touch it for as
1:21
little amount of time as possible So basically we want to keep our butter as cold as possible so I not even going to use my fingers I going to use a pastry cutter to make this You can if you have one
1:33
use a food processor, or you can just use a knife. And I'm just going to cut this into my mix
1:40
So my bowl is a bit small. I'm going to swap to a bigger bowl. Right, let's try that again
1:45
In my bigger bowl, I am going to cut my butter into my flour and my sugar. And once you are satisfied
1:52
that it has been cut in enough, we're going to add some vanilla. This is a teaspoon of vanilla
1:58
And I'm also going to add in my sugar-coated cranberries. I'm going to stir that all through
2:04
And my final ingredient that I'm going to add is the zest of an orange. Now, I'm not going to
2:10
put any juice in unless I need a little bit of extra liquid. So I'm just going to zest the whole
2:16
of this orange. Make sure when you zest any fruit into your bake, that you zest it directly in
2:21
because it's not just the zest that you'll be getting, but any oils that come off the fruit as well
2:26
So you'll get lots of extra flavour with the oils that come in. That's my orange grated
2:31
Now, I may need some juice off the orange as well. It just depends on how my dough comes together
2:38
And once you have combined all your ingredients in your bowl, then you have a very simple test of seeing if it all stick together
2:45
So all you're going to do, you're going to get stuck in with your hands, and you just going to start squeezing it and seeing how well it sticks together You may need some orange juice just to help you bring the dough together So use a little bit of the orange that you zested Just juice a little bit off it
2:59
But keep squeezing for a minute or so just to see if it comes together before you do
3:04
So once you have worked it enough to tell whether it is sticky enough
3:09
and it's going to hold together, you're looking for it to form nice clumps like this
3:14
You can see that's really sticky, soft clamps. And that's how you know that your dough will hold together
3:19
when you come to bringing it all together. So all I'm going to do now is I'm going to tip my dough
3:25
onto my work surface, and then I'm just going to use my hands to squeeze it all together
3:32
So you want to not need it as much as possible. You are just squeezing it together to bring it all together
3:38
into one big dough, as you can see. Once you have brought your dough together
3:44
you just want to roll it into a log like this. We're going to cut it in half
3:49
wrap it up in cling film and pop it in the fridge for a couple of hours. So my dough is nice and chilled
3:55
It's going back to being really firm because the butter is solidified in the fridge. So now it's time to cut it up
4:00
So I'm just going to cut it into about half inch slices
4:04
And because the butter is really firm, this should be quite easy to do
4:09
But make sure you use a really sharp knife so you get lovely clean slices
4:14
Now I actually find when I slice my roll that I like to use rotate my roll about 45 degrees so a quarter turn every time I cut and it just means I don get any edges coming off and any bits of cookie
4:29
that it just makes it just makes sure it keeps it really nice and tidy so now we have
4:34
our cookies cut I have in here some sugar this is just regular white granulated sugar
4:39
and I'm going to pop my cookies in and just to give them a nice little coat of sugar
4:46
and that just gives them a lovely extra crunch on the outside. Now these, because they're going in from being pretty cold
4:52
shouldn't spread in the oven. So you don't have to put them really far apart
4:56
like you do with normal cookies. They don't spread out as much. You need to give them a little bit of room
5:01
but you don't need to leave them as much as you would normally. Right, so my shortbread is ready to go in the oven
5:07
My oven has been preheating at 160, and these are going to bake for 10 to 12 minutes
5:12
and they will be beautiful and golden when they come out. Right, so my shortbread is out and it is cooled
5:19
When your shortbread comes out of the oven, the way you can tell that it's ready is you want the edges of it
5:23
to just be starting to go golden and the middle of it will feel just slightly squishy
5:29
What you need to do is leave it on your tray for a few minutes to firm up and then transfer it to a cooling rack to cool completely
5:36
And there you have it. That is your shortbread done. I hope you've enjoyed this video
5:41
Don't forget to like it if you have. And do subscribe so you always know when I release new it
5:45
Thanks for joining me today. I shall see you next time. Happy baking