ISO Cookie HELP!!!!

[LPBeier]

I consider myself a pretty good baker, having started making cookies when I was about 6 with my Mom. I know that shortbread doughs have a lower ratio of liquid (actually butter only) to dry ingredients, but my dough is just powder. I should be able to figure it out but I am stumped. Though the cornstarch seems pretty high with 2 cups of flour.

Brown Sugar Buttons
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups AP Flour
1/2 cup Cornstarch

Beat butter brown sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add Flour and cornstarch. Mix until dough forms.

Well, my dough isn't forming! Any ideas how I can fix it without destroying the texture?

 

[LPBeier]

I really don't want to waste another batch of cookie dough with butter at $4.00 a pound here ($6 if you want unsalted). I would appreciate any ideas. I have tried working it with warm hands and it is not helping at all.

 

[Yakuta]

How about one or two eggs.

 

[pdswife]

yeap, eggs and more vanilla.
( and this is from me the baking pro!)

 

[jpmcgrew]

Is this a recipe you have used before? If not it could be the recipe. I have never heard of cornstarch in cookie dough before.

 

[LPBeier]

yes, it is a new recipe (all of mine are this year except those in my head because my cookbooks are all in storage). But I know this TYPE of cookie and yes cornstarch can be used in shortbread style cookies (which don't usually use eggs) so I didn't question the use of one and lack of the other.

 

[LPBeier]

Here is the link to the recipe, though I got it from a little recipe book in a magazine.
Brown Sugar Buttons.

 

[LPBeier]

I added some more vanilla and a bit of softened butter and it seemed to have worked. I am off to bake them and will report back. Thanks everyone, I should have just thought of this but sometimes you just need to talk it out with friends!

 

[Andy M.]

The flour you are using may be a higher protein flour than the brand recommended in the recipe. You might try reducing the flour by 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup.

 

[LPBeier]

Thanks, Andy, that makes total sense. I have been using Robin Hood flour, the one that actually put out the recipes, but as you mention this I just realized that Costo went out of the 20 lb bags of this and so I ended up with Five Roses Flour. Could definitely have something to do with it. Since I couldn't reduce the flour with the dough I made, I just added more butter and it came out to the consistency I could work with and know to be right.

 

[LPBeier]

Well, another theory up in smoke! Andy, it turns out that the booklet shows Five Roses Flour on this recipe and NOT Robin Hood, AND they are both now part of the same parent company, though still different.

 

[PieSusan]

I am sorry that I missed this thread. I would have suggested that you didn't let your butter soften enough when you started and sometimes leaving the dough sit out or the pate brisee technique of heeling it a little.

 

[PieSusan]

This blog offers great advice.
On the Short List: Shortbread Recipes for Holiday Baking | BlogHer

 

[Andy M.]

Well, another theory up in smoke! Andy, it turns out that the booklet shows Five Roses Flour on this recipe and NOT Robin Hood, AND they are both now part of the same parent company, though still different.

Well, that's the extent of my baking expertise. I hope someone else will be more helpful.

 

[Alix]

I'm sure you have had your question answered and your cookies are fine. I just wanted to post this for the future. If you are making shortbread type cookies the ratio is 1-2-4. Thats sugar-butter-flour respectively. So if you have 1 cup of sugar you need 2 of butter and 4 of flour. Thats been my standard for years and years and any recipe I see that is "off" of those amounts I adjust accordingly and all is well. If the ratio changes then they become more like sugar cookies and not shortbready anymore.

 

[PieSusan]

^AndyM, it was a very good supposition on your part. Often different protein counts in flour can affect a baked good.

Now, here I am going to give away a very big Hungarian baking secret:

I know that Hungarian bakers love to use unbleached all-purpose Montana Sapphire Flour. Even Nick Malgieri, when he teaches classes at the Western Reserve School of Cooking noticed that his cakes rose higher. He said that he buys it by the case when he is here and has it shipped to New York--a very expensive proposition (shipping wise) but he feels it is worth it.

If you ever see it on your shelves, give it a try.

A lot of people are loving this Montana Sapphire unbleached white flour because it is an all-purpose with a protein content of 10% winter wheat. As such, they are getting fantastic results with bread doughs--stellar results, in fact.

 

[LPBeier]

Thanks everyone, I did post earlier that I got them to work by adding extra butter. Alix, I found my mother's shortbread recipe in a drawer (thought it went to storage with all the rest of my cooking stuff), and yes, those are the EXACT proportions of hers and it is a never-fail recipe. I have my "brown sugar buttons" but I am going to make a batch of TNT Scottish Shortbread today as well.

Thank you again to everyone. You really did help me. I don't know why I couldn't figure this out on my own. I just am not into baking this year and it is all or part of most of my gifts.

 

[GhettoRacingKid]

wow that is alot of corn starch.

what purpose does it serve?

 

[Andy M.]

I'm sure you have had your question answered and your cookies are fine. I just wanted to post this for the future. If you are making shortbread type cookies the ratio is 1-2-4. Thats sugar-butter-flour respectively. So if you have 1 cup of sugar you need 2 of butter and 4 of flour. Thats been my standard for years and years and any recipe I see that is "off" of those amounts I adjust accordingly and all is well. If the ratio changes then they become more like sugar cookies and not shortbready anymore.

Thanks, Alix. simple and easy!