Canestrelli: the best shortbread cookie

If I had to define these cookies with just one word, it would be “sublime”.

With their  melt-in-your-mouth sandy texture,  rich taste of butter and  delicate flavour of vanilla, these are the best shortbread cookies ever. If you’re looking for the ultimate shortbread cookie recipe, I suggest  you give Canestrelli a try.

Canestrelli are daisy-shaped shortbread cookies typical of Liguria, in Northern Italy; you can find many different recipes on-line, all using a combination of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. This recipe, however, is different because it uses boiled egg yolks. And that’s what intrigued me most when I first saw the recipe on the Italian food blog Menta e Cioccolato, about a year ago.

I consulted my sister-in-law, who loves experimenting as much as I do, about the egg thing.

“Have you ever tried making shortbread cookies using boiled egg yolks?” I asked.

“No I haven’t…I’ve seen recipes that use boiled egg yolks, but I’ve never tried any of them.” she answered.

“Boiled egg yolks…sounds weird, doesn’t it? I wonder what the cookies taste like…” I said. I bookmarked the recipe  in my  “To try” folder, and forgot about it.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, when I finally gave in to curiosity and dared to try the recipe.

I baked a small batch, using only one egg yolk,  in case I didn’t like the cookies and had to bin them. The recipe recommends eating the cookies a day after they’ve been baked, so I stored them in a tin box.

The following day, soon after I’d dusted the cookies with icing sugar, my husband grabbed one and ate it.

“These are fantastic!!! Why did you make so few of them?” he asked.

Why, indeed? So I baked another batch, this time using the whole recipe

Tips & Notes:

• To boil the egg yolks, you can either boil whole eggs, then discard the boiled egg white (use it to make egg salad), or you can boil the egg yolks separately and use the egg whites to make other sweets, like these ones, or an omelette. To boil only the egg yolks: bring water to the boil in a small pan. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, then place the egg yolks gently into the boiling water using a spoon. Boil for 5 minutes, then drain and let cool.
• To make the hole in the middle of the cookie, I used the cap of a marker (washed first!). To avoid the dough clogging the cap, place a piece of cling film slightly larger than the cookie cutter over the cookie, then cut the hole. The dough from the hole, wrapped in cling film, will still get inside the cap, but you can easily pull it off and set it aside with the other scraps of dough.
• After cutting cookies, you’ll have some leftover scraps of dough. Press them all together, place them between two pieces of cling film and roll them into a disk. Refrigerate for at least half an hour (or pop them into the freezer for 10 minutes) then cut more cookies out of the dough and bake them.
• These cookies improve with time, and are best eaten at least a day after they’ve been baked. If you can, leave them in their box for a week before eating. They’re supposed to keep for a month, but I can’t vouch for this – they never last that long!

Canestrelli

(makes about 35 cookies)

180 gr. unsalted butter, cold (6.4 oz.)

75 gr. icing (confectioner) sugar (2.7 oz)

150 gr. plain (all purpose) flour (5.3 oz.)

150 gr. potato flour (5.3 oz.)

3 egg yolks from medium eggs, hard-boiled

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Icing sugar to dust

• In a large bowl, mix butter, cut in small pieces, with sugar, salt and vanilla extract using a fork or wooden spoon.
• Press the egg yolks through a fine-mesh strainer and pour over the butter and sugar mix, then beat until well combined. Don’t skip the egg-straining, or you’ll end up with lumps of egg yolk in your dough.
• In a bowl mix the two flours with a whisk, then quickly incorporate them to the butter mix, taking care not to overwork (and warm) the dough.
• Sandwich the dough between two pieces of cling film, or parchment paper, then pat flat into a disk and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 160° C (320° F). Roll the dough, still sandwiched between the two pieces of cling film, to 1 cm thickness (about 3/8 inch), and cut the cookies with a flower-shaped cookie cutter about 5 cm wide (slightly less than 2 inches).
• To make the hole in the middle, I used the cap of a marker (washed first!). To avoid the dough clogging the cap, place a piece of cling film slightly larger than the cookie cutter over the cookie, then cut the hole. The dough from the hole, wrapped in cling film, will still get inside the cap, but you can easily pull it off and set it aside with the other scraps of dough.
• Place the cookies on baking trays lined with parchment paper and bake for 18-20 minutes – they must stay pale.
• Let the cookies (which will be very fragile) cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer onto a wire rack until completely cool.
• Dust with icing sugar, then store in a tin box or airtight container in a dark, cool place (not in the fridge).

Recipe slightly adapted from Morena – Menta e Cioccolato.

Tagged as: baking, biscuits, cookies