Whipped Cranberry Shortbread

Everyone loves shortbread, but not every baker favours chilling and rolling out cookie dough. The holiday season is short and time does not always permit, so Whipped Cranberry Shortbread is the way to go! Prepared with fresh cranberries, this easy-to-make cookie is both tart and sweet – the perfect balance!

I’m completely in love with this Whipped Cranberry Shortbread recipe!  Until I tried this recipe, I always believed that a good shortbread cookie was the result of chilling and rolling dough before using fancy cookie cutters in hopes of getting the perfect cookie. Well, I’ve tried them all and some of them have been really successful, but some of them have been a complete disaster.  We’ve all had that experience where the dough rises and spreads during the baking process and destroys our perfectly cookie-cutter cookie.

And, to be completely honest, I think rolling pins are a form of torture for at-home cooks.  Ha!  I know I just need more practice with pastry, but for some reason, I find it extremely difficult to get an even, flat dough surface when rolling out cookie dough.  That’s why this recipe is one of my Christmas favourites.  There’s no need for rolling pins or cookie cutters.  The only tools you need are a bowl, a mixer, and a small ice-cream scoop.  Oh, and a fork!

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND NEVER MISS ANOTHER RECIPE!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to my annual holiday-themed recipes. Traditionally, every year I share a series of recipes that you might already be familiar with. For example, I’ve previously shared 12 Holiday Trifles, 12 Holiday Bars & Squares, and even these 12 Edible Holiday Wreath recipes! Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

This year I’m doing it differently. Rather than sharing multiple back to back series, I’m sharing a new holiday-themed recipe almost every day from now until Christmas Eve. For those of you who have followed my annual Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series, don’t worry, you will still get lots of new cookie recipes this year too. I will not, however, be publishing the cookies back to back in a 24-day series. This would have been my 8th year running the series and it becomes very exhausting. Also, we have a vacation booked in what would have been the middle of the series, so this year, I’m spreading the recipes out so that I’m not sharing the same type of recipe every day.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! And, just in case you’re curious, you can see previous annual posts for my 24 Cookies of Christmas Series here!

‘TIS A HARD LIFE, BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT!

Have you been reading my blog for any length of time? If you have, you will already be aware of what I’m about to discuss. If you haven’t, it’s important that you understand how frustrating it can be to be a food blogger at times. Food bloggers are always working ahead of schedule. When it comes to Christmas recipes, for example, we are baking cakes and cookies as early as September!

We do this so that we can test the recipes to make sure that they will work for you at home. The recipes need to be plated and styled. Photographs need to be taken. We have to write up the post and make sure we please the folks at Google, otherwise, our recipes run the risk of being buried in cyberspace somewhere. There are many other steps that I’m skipping here, but all of it is to say that we need the time to get the recipes out to you a few weeks before you need them.

Now, as a huge fan of Christmas baking – the 200+ Christmas recipes here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen are proof of that – there’s one thing that frustrates me every single year. There’s a tremendous lack of things like fresh cranberries for many months of the year. Don’t even get me started on holiday confections like Hershey’s chocolate or candy canes! The good news is that if you cannot source fresh cranberries for this recipe, frozen cranberries work perfectly well!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! To be perfectly honest, I have made these with both salted and unsalted butter and there’s no difference in taste or appearance once all is said and done. Use what you have on hand.
• Cornstarch – When added to cake, cookie and shortbread recipes, cornstarch helps create a crumbly and tender dessert-like texture.
• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Confectioner’s Sugar – This superfine sugar is sometimes called powdered sugar.  It is used in frostings quite often.  When dusted lightly onto cakes and cookies, it adds just a touch of sweetness, but more importantly, it looks very visually appealing!
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Cranberries – I’m using fresh cranberries which have been finely chopped in a food processor. You can certainly use dried cranberries here too, but I would not recommend you use frozen cranberries. They will have too much moisture and your cookie dough won’t hold up to it.

HOW TO MAKE WHIPPED CRANBERRY SHORTBREAD

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside. Add the butter to a bowl and using a hand-held mixer, whip until light and fluffy – about 3 minutes. Add the flour, corn starch, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla. Blend together until fully incorporated – about 2 minutes. Next, add in the chopped fresh cranberries and fold them well into the cookie dough.

Portion about 1 tablespoon of the dough (I used a small ice-cream type scoop to get even amounts of dough for each cookie.) Set the mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving a good 2 inches of space between each. Next, dip a fork into a small bowl of confectioner’s sugar. This will keep the dough from sticking to the fork. Use the fork to push down onto the ball to flatten the ball to 1/2 inch or so.

Bake for 18 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling.

BAKED GOODS MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

These Whipped Cranberry Shortbread are so perfect for gift-giving. Not only are these cookies great for giving to a friend or loved one, but it’s so easy to package and transport. It might be just me, but is there anyone else out there who loves to receive kitchen-related products as gifts?

If you’d like to gift these cookies to a friend, here’s what you should do. First, buy a new cookie jar and pair it with another kitchen item such as a whisk or a spatula. Bring them home, and wash and dry them well and pile the baked and fully cooled cookies into the cookie jar. Wrap the cookie jar in a large sheet of cellophane, gathering the ends at to top of the jar. Tie the ends up with a ribbon and attach the whisk or spatula. Now, you’ve got a dessert and a gift all in one! I’d love to get something like that; so thoughtful, right!?

STORING AND FREEZING

Whipped Cranberry Shortbread will last in the freezer for three months. Be sure you have a good container with a tight seal. Whenever I’m freezing cookies, I always double up on the seal action. Before I place the lid on, I always drape a sheet of plastic wrap on top. Then I push the lid on. I just feel that the lid fits more tightly. Any little thing I can do to keep the frost out, I’m going to do it! I like to use containers like this.

Like I always say, if you freeze any baked goods, remove only the amount you want when you decide to thaw them. Fetch the container from the freezer and remove only what you need. Put the lid back on and get the container back in the freezer.

To properly thaw baked goods, place them on a plate or a wire cooling rack. Don’t pile them. Spread them out and give them some space. Let them sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. They will taste fresh and perfect every single time!

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!