There are many times that I have been driving in my car for an hour or more before realizing I’ve been listening to my kids’ CDs.
It’s usually not until I’m at a red light and catch the person in the next car staring at me all head bopping and full on lip syncing along to something like “Shortnin’ Bread” by the awesome Laurie Berkner. I probably would look less crazy were the two car seats behind me not empty, but the truth is, I really dig the music!
Which brings me to that shortnin’ bread. Considering that I must hear that song over a dozen times a week, I seem to always have shortbread on the brain. While I have been making a traditional version for years, Valentine’s Day is almost here and I was curious to see if adding some deep red raspberry juice to the dough would produce a pink cookie. It took me a bunch of tries to arrive at a true pink hue, but once I did the kids fell in love. Chloe was so tickled she just walked around the house with a cookie in her hand and squealing, “they’re pink!” (I guess the song’s lyrics are true — “Mama’s little baby loves shortnin’ shortnin’….” — cause Chloe really does!)
Not only are these cookies pink and easy to make, they make a great gift for the ones you love the most!
Raspberry Shortbread Hearts
Ingredients
- 1 Cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 Cup Raspberry Juice*
- 2 Cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 Tsp kosher salt
- * Defrost 2/3 cup frozen raspberries and press them through a sieve into a bowl reserving only the raspberry juice for the recipe.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer (or use a hand mixer) and cream together for 3 minutes.
- Add in the raspberry juice.
- In a separate bowl whisk together flour and salt.
- Add the flour into the butter mixture until just incorporated.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll until ½ inch thick.
- Using a 1 1/2 inch heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies.
- Transfer hearts to cookie sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper.
- Bake 20-22 minutes.
- Cookies should be firm but still soft.
- Cool and serve.
I made these yesterday with white whole wheat flour. So yummy! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
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honestly i have the pickey daughter anyone can ever have she dosen`t eat any thing but when she tried these oh she wouldn`t stop she just kept on eating so i tried 10 more loved them all! i finaly found some food my daughter can eat i can always count on u weelicious1 thank u u saved my daughters life!
Oranges would definitely lend tons of flavor (especially if you use a little juice and a little zest), but they won’t impart color to the cookies. You could try some pumpkin puree to get them turning orange!
I made these the other day and loved them! I was thinking of making some for fall party in the shape of pumpkins. Do you think oranges would work?
These were so good and easy to make, but we made raspberry shortbread trains instead! 🙂 Classic shortbread cookie, and the raspberry adds just a hint of flavor and a pretty color.
I haven’t tried it, but I do think it would work because you want the butter to be soft, and Earth Balance is that softened butter texture! Let me know how they turn out!