Hungarian Shortbread

I’ve been making this very often lately. Partially because I’ve had a lot of homemade raspberry jam, and partially because my people loved it. Shortbread is very sweet and full of butter, but it still disappears in seconds.

Hungarian Shortbread

(original recipe)

220 g flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
225 g butter
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup (about 150 g) raspberry jam
150 g sugar

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar and egg yolks to the butter and beat until incorporated. Gradually add flour and continue to beat with a mixer until smooth.

Measure the weight of the dough and divide into two equal parts. Shape each into cylinder and put them into two freezer bags. Put in the fridge, best overnight. You’ll need to grate the dough later, so you can put it in the freezer, but don’t let it freeze rock-solid as it will be difficult.

Butter 26 cm diameter spring-form pan. Take one piece of the dough and grate it in the pan. Pat gently with your fingers, but don’t press too hard. Spread the jam over leaving about 1 cm of the edges free. Grate the remaining dough over ang pat gently again.

Bake in a preheated oven on 350°F/180°C for 25-30 minutes. Let shortbread cool completely before you remove it from the pan and cut into slices.

The original recipe says you should bake the shortbread in a round pan, and than slice it like a cake. I have made it number of times and each time, desert acted differently (each time it was a different oven :P). Sometimes the slices were fine, and sometimes they would break, so I had do cut them into squares. Considering the sweetness of the shortbread, finally, I concluded it would be best to cut them into bite sized pieces and put them into miniature paper cups. If you do so, then there’s no point in baking this in a round pan. You should use rectangle 23×23 cm pan (or a pan with a similar area).

Note: This is my entry for the Bake Fest #11 event, hosted by The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen!!