Jasmine Shortbread Sandwiches with Grapefruit Curd
Jasmine Shortbread Sandwiches with Grapefruit Curd
I’m not sure if I was just overly hungry over the weekend or what, but it seemed like every recipe I looked at was something I wanted to make. The pizzas were so good and so easy that my confidence and ambition got the best of me. These cookies are delicious, but be warned, they don’t throw together in 15 minutes.
Make the curd first because it has to be refrigerated for 4 hours. The cookie dough itself has to spend at least an hour in the fridge after it’s made so think in terms of stages; don’t get yourself all whipped up into an impatient cookie frenzy (like I did) that you’ll have to ride out while everything cools.
They are worth the wait, though. I promise.
Jasmine Shortbread Sandwiches with Grapefruit Curd
Adapted from recipes in Martha Stewart Living, March 2012
Ingredients
•2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
•3/4 cup of confectioners’ sugar
•1 tsp pure vanilla extract
•2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
•coarse salt
•2 tbsp ground organic jasmine tea
•fine sanding sugar for pressing
•1/3 cup of grapefruit curd (recipe below)
Method
1.Beat together butter and confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add flour, 1/2 tsp of salt, and the tea and beat on low speed until just combined (do not over mix). Form dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
2.Preheat oven to 325. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between pieces of parchment to a 1/8” thickness. Freeze until firm, about 10 minutes. Cut out 20 squares with a 2 3/4” square cookie cutter, then cut each in half to make 40 rectangles. Since we don’t actually own any cookie cutters, I opted for using the round metal cap from our martini shaker. Worked perfectly.
3.Gently press 1 flat side of 20 rectangles in sanding sugar and arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet, sugar side up. Bake until pale gold, 16 to 18 minutes. Let cookies cool on a wire rack. Repeat with remaining rectangles.
4.Spread 1 generous teaspoon of curd onto unsugared side of cookies, then sandwich with other cookies.
Grapefruit Curd
from Martha Stewart Living, March 2012
Reducing the grapefruit juice concentrates the flavor in the curd. You will need only part of it for the cookies, but you’ll find plenty of ways to use up the remainder. Serve it with scones, biscuits or pancakes, for instance.
Ingredients
•1 cup fresh Ruby Red grapefruit juice (from 2 grapefruits), plus 3 tbsp finely grated Ruby Red grapefruit zest.
•3 large eggs plus 3 large yolks
•1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
•coarse salt
•4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
Method
1.Bring grapefruit juice to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. REduce heat and simmer until juice is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
2.Whisk together eggs, yolks, sugar, grapefruit juice, grapefruit zest and a pinch of salt in a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pot of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened (6 to 7 minutes). Remove from heat and whisk in butter, a few pieces at a time.
3.Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl set in a larger bowl filled with ice water, and stir until cool. Cover surface of curd with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.
Sunday, February 19, 2012