Rosemary Shortbread

While grabbing lunch in DC this past spring I sampled some Rosemary Shortbread the restaurant served as a pre-appetizer before the main meal.

I’ve been dreaming about it ever since and thought it would be perfect this time of year. I absolutely love rosemary and it lends a wonderfully savory and aromatic flavor to this shortbread. I found this particular recipe on the NY Times website and baked up a perfect batch this morning.

Shortbread is great when short on time as it doesn’t require any real prep (letting butter come to room temperature, for example) and it’s not super sweet which I appreciate. Plus, the recipe could not be easier!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon plus 1 pinch kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted cold butter, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 to 2 teaspoons rosemary, chestnut or other dark, full-flavored honey (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pulse flour, sugar, rosemary and salt in a food processor. Add butter and honey (I just used regular honey as I didn’t have anything special on hand). Pulse a few times more until crumbs start together being careful not to overprocess. I actually dumped everything out of my food processor into a bowl towards the end and finished combining everything by hand. You don’t want the dough to be smooth, crumbly is perfect.

Press dough into an ungreased 8-inch square baking pan. The recipe says to prick the dough all over with a fork but I neglected to do that and it turned out just fine. Bake until golden brown, 45-50 minutes for 8-inch pan. Place on a wire rack to cool and cut into squares, bars or wedges while still warm.

Let bars cool completely after cutting in the actual pan or they will crumble as they need a little time to firm up. These bars are delicious! I think I may dip one half in melted chocolate with the next batch I make. Sliced into long rectangles, these are already being eaten as I type. Enjoy and happy holidays!