Cranberry Shortbread Cookies 蔓越梅牛油饼

Recipe adapted from Guai Shu Shu

Chinese New Year (CNY) has long past and I am still clearing my backlog of recipes from my CNY bakes. I hope I can catch up! I have a few more to go! You are wrong if you think that I can have full day to cook, bake and blog at home now that I have retired from the competitive corporate world. In reality, my home based business is making me just as busy but in a happier and healthier manner. I am still slow and irregular in my recipes documentation. Alright...before I rant further, allow me to share this great goodie recipe that I really adore - Cranberry Shortbread Cookies 蔓越梅牛油饼. I never really liked any resemblance of shortcakes. But I do love this!

I used to have second thoughts about cranberries. To me, cranberries are a tad too sour as a fruit. Whilst I do not mind cranberry juice, eating the fruit itself was a no no. I know the benefits of cranberries being a superfood. I should not resist! I am glad that many food bloggers have introduced and shared this widely used recipe, albeit in different variations. Tried, tested and testified. I absolutely enjoy the usage of dried cranberries in this Cranberry Shortbread Cookies 蔓越梅牛油饼. Every ingredient and taste is just so cohesive when put together.

Ingredients (yields about 50 cookies) :

• 500 gm Top flour or cake flour (I used Top flour)
• 250 gm unsalted butter (room temperature, sliced or diced)
• 2 tsp shortening
• 150 gm icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 200 dried cranberries
• 1 beaten egg

Method : 

1. Mix butter, shortening, icing sugar at high speed till light and fluffy like meringues.
2. Add egg. Mix at low speed till well combined.  
3. Let the mixer continue to run at low speed, spoon in sifted flour till well combined.
4. Add cranberries to dough. Mix at low speed till cranberries are evenly spread.
5. Remove bowl from mixer, lightly stir dough in bowl with a spoon to ensure ingredients are well combined. 
6. Shape cookie dough into squarish shape of about 3.5 cm (W) x 3.5 cm (H) and wrap the shaped dough nicely with a cling wrap.
7. If you are using a cookie mould like me, lay the cling wrap in the cookie mould first before filling it with the dough. Remove the squarish cookie dough from the cookie mould when done and wrap the dough nicely with the same cling wrap. 
8. Store wrapped dough into freezer for about 30 minutes. This would set the shape of the dough and harden the the dough for easy slicing later.
9. When cookie dough is hard enough, remove from freezer and unwrap. 
10. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius or 320 degrees fahrenheit.
11. Use a knife to slice the cookie dough. Ideally, each slice should preferably be between 0.5 cm to 0.75 cm but in reality, the thickness may vary. Some slices may end up thicker than the others.
12. Place cookie slices onto a lined baking tray. Leave a little space in between. 
13. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. I took more than 25 minutes as my oven was not efficient enough and my slices were slightly thicker. 
14. Once out of oven, allow the cookies to cool for 5 to 10 minutes  before transferring to cooling rack. 

Tip : Bake longer if you want your cookies more crispy and in darker tone. I baked a lighter batch and a darker batch. I prefer the lighter ones actually. 

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For me, it was a good change to break away from the norm of CNY gifting. When everybody's buying pineapple tarts and bak kwas (pork jerky) for friends and relatives, this Cranberry Shortbread Cookies 蔓越梅牛油饼 could be a refreshing change!