Huzzah, I have finally succeeded in making a proper shortbread!
Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that my husband and I rarely celebrate. We've been together for 9 years, so we both know where are hearts are, but occasionally he'll get me flowers or jewelry and I'll bake him some kind of heart shaped treat. This year brought emerald earrings and a luscious batch of Jimmy's Pink Cookies from Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life.
God bless my mother for giving me this book which is part memoir, part cookbook, and full of love and deliciousness. I've made most of the recipes from it, but always shied from Jimmy's Pink Cookies because of my past failure to produce a crumbly, light shortbread. Mine came out tough from too much handling, and when I waste a pound of butter, I tend to stay away.
Well, no fear with Molly's recipe, it is pretty fool-proof, and the cookies–Holy Mary, they are good. My husband loved them, as did the kids and my good friend, Nancy, whom I consider to be an aficionado of shortbreads, pie crusts, and butter in general. The cookies will a keep a few days in the fridge, or you can freeze them forever, but believe me, they won't last.
Wizenberg's blog, http://www.orangette.blogspot.com, is also full of love and deliciousness. Check it out; she is an artist with food and words.
Jimmy’s Pink Cookies (Molly Wizenburg)
For the cookies:
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon kirsch or cherry extract (I used kirsch and probably about 1 tablespoon at least.)
red food coloring
To make cookies, combine the butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and beat, first on low speed, and then slowly increasing to medium, until light and fluffy.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt, and whisk well. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until the flour is just absorbed. Add the vanilla and beat well to incorporate. (I added the vanilla in after I whipped the butter and sugar due to my fear of the dough becoming tough from too much beating with the flour added.) Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on a large clean surface and turn the dough out onto it. Shape into a disk, wrap well, and refrigerate for one hour.
On a clean, floured surface, roll th dough out to a thickness of 3/8 inch. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into whatever shapes you would like. (I used an antique heat shaped cookie cutter, naturally.) Molly uses a 2 inch round cutter and Jimmy uses a much bigger cutter, often in the shape of a heart.
Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake them one sheet at a time, keeping the second sheet in the refridgerator until the first one is done, for 16 to 20 minutes (my smaller heart cookies took 17 minutes exactly), or until the cookies are pale golden at the edges. Do not allow them to brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely on the pan.
To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butterin the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat on low speed to fully incorporate, then raise the speed to medium/medium high and beat until there are no lumps, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the flavoring and a few drops of food coloring and beat well. The frosting should be a pretty shade of pink. Taste, if it needs more cherry flavor, go ahead and add more. Generously spread onto the fully cooled cookies. This recipe makes a ton of frosting, Molly recommends using most of it, but I found I had a lot left over. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having too much frosting, I am going to make a small rich chocolate cake to frost with the remainder of it.
The recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies, I rolled mine out a bit thinner and got 3 dozen.














