Citrus Shortbread

I’m four and a half hours into a 3 hour call. Yeah figure that one out…. Anyway to say that it’s going well is not true. Apparently Coresite OCX, Azure Expressroute, and layer 2 connectivity aren’t friends tonight. This is killing BGP as we all know which uses TCP 179 to establish connectivity. Welp falling back to the site to site vpn setup which means tearing down most of the work we’ve done. Now that I’ve ruined everyone else’s collective brains let’s get to the good stuff. The world is still feeling the effects of COVID19, BLM is trying to change the world and rightfully so, and so many other things are making the world feel like it’s on fire. Is it hot out, is that climate change, or is it just summer?

Just in time for summer are these citrus flavored shortbread cookies with a citrus frosting. They’re super simple just like the cinnamon biscoff cookie shortbread cookies. They’re buttery and light. They’re refreshing and frosted. You also have the choice of adding the frosting if you’re in the mood or not. Below is a gallery showing the frosting coming together. It’s a pretty standard cream cheese frosting with zest and juice.

I wasn’t sure how much juice or zest would be needed. I grabbed two limes, two lemons, and one large orange. I zested and juiced all of them. From there I split the zest in half. Once I had the dough together I started out by checking the consistency and then added a bit of juice at a time. I ended up with two Tablespoons of juice and that worked well. I ended up doing the same for the frosting. The witch wanted it to be a creamier frosting instead of a runnier frosting so we played the same game. A little at a time.

The shortbread is a quick refreshingly tangy treat to help us all slip slowly into “summer”. This summer will never be like a normal summer so hopefully something like this can help us all feel a little better.

Black Lives Matter. End Racism. Be open to addressing your own issues and biases. Hopefully we can create a more equal and just world for once. Happy Pride Month (a day late).

Stay safe out there.

Ingredients

Shortbread:

• 1/2 Cup powdered sugar

• 1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter - room temp *important

• 1 1/2 Cups AP flour

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

• the zest of 1 lime, 1 lemon, and half an orage

• 2 Tablespoons of juice from the lime, lemon, and orange

Frosting:

• 4oz cream cheese

• 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

• zest of 1 lime, 1 lemon, and half an orange

• 2 Tablespoons of juice from the lime, lemon, and orange

Instructions

Shortbread:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees

2. Add the room temp butter to the bowl of your stand mixer, with a paddle attachment, and whip for 1-2 minutes

3. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar

4. Add the vanilla and mix

5. Meanwhile in another bowl whisk together the flour, and salt

6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until combined

7. Zest the limes, lemons, and orange and split in half

8. Juice the limes, lemons, and orange into a bowl or measuring cup

9. Add half of the zest and 2 Tablespoons of juice to the batter and mix

10. Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray

11. Move the dough to the pan and use an offset spatula to spread out the dough evenly

12. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until slightly browned

13. Remove from the oven and immediately slice before they cool

14. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack

Frosting:

1. Whip the butter and cream cheese to combine

2. Mix in the vanilla

3. Add in the zest and juice and mix to combine

4. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar

5. Spread desired amount on the shortbread cookies or eat by itself

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