Great Grandma's Shortbread Cookies & Fondant Frosting

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And now, let's talk Shortbread Cookies!

When we were growing up, we had so many Christmas traditions, and I loved it! On Christmas Eve, when we had Chicken a la King, we would each have a small red candle clipped to our plate, and a garland napkin ring with a sprig of holly in it. After dinner we always sang carols, read Christmas stories and watched George C. Scott in The Christmas Carol, with trays of homemade candy and shortbread cookies. And of course we read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, out of the beautiful bible that our mom bought in Jerusalem when she was a young adult. These traditions made Christmas even more special, exciting, and unifying.

Isn't it neat to think that special family traditions can be passed down for generations? This recipe for Shortbread Cookies and Fondant Frosting, for instance, is our Great Grandma's recipe, and so our family has been making these at Christmas time for years and years and years. Although this recipe is special for our family, sharing it only spreads the happiness!

And, by the way, you'll be glad to know that I've updated the directions. :)
(PS. Don't be turned off from the fondant frosting because you are familiar with that bland store-bought variety. This homemade fondant is smooth, sweet, and bursting with delicious flavor.)

Great Grandma’s Shortbread Cookies

Submitted by Erin ~ The Sisters Cafe

Printable recipe here

4 c. flour

1 c. powdered sugar

2 c. butter

About 1 tsp vanilla extract (or almond, but I prefer vanilla because I add almond extract to the fondant frosting)

Combine flour and powdered sugar together in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Chop four cubes of butter into slices and drop into the bowl. Pulse processor until the butter is the size of peas. Add extract and pulse a few more times. It will look like this:

Dump flour/butter mixture into the bowl of a standing mixer. Using the kneading attachment, knead on speed 1 for a minute and then increase to speed 2. The flour mixture will take shape and turn into a thick dough. Mix until the dough is lumped together and cleaning the sides of the bowl, and appears smooth.

Chill for 20-30 minutes for easier handling, and then roll it out using a silicone baking mat and a lightly floured rolling pin. (A silicone baking mat prevents dough from sticking to the flat surface and eliminates the need to flour your surface. This is good because every time you flour your surface, you add flour to your dough and decrease its quality.)

Roll out to desired thickness (1/4 inch to 3/8 inch) and cut out cookie shapes using Christmas themed cookie cutters.

Place cookies on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes. Duration will depend on how thick the cookie dough was rolled out. Check after a few minutes and be sure to remove from oven as soon as the edges have a hint of gold. (Only the edges should turn a pale gold. Do not wait for the tops to look golden or you will have overcooked cookies.) Frost with fondant. This recipe makes 3 or 4 dozen cookies.

Fondant Frosting for Shortbread Cookies

The Sisters Cafe

3 c. sugar

½ c. heavy whipping cream

½ c. water

2 Tb Karo syrup (light corn syrup)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp vanilla or almond extract (use the opposite flavoring as you used for the short bread cookies; I always add vanilla to the shortbread and almond to the fondant)
Extra cream or milk (to create a spreadable frosting consistency at the end)

Place liquids (½ c. cream, Karo syrup, and water) in a heavy large pan. Add sugar carefully in middle, creating a pile of sugar. Turn stove on low and carefully stir the sugar into the liquid without touching the sides of the pan. Continue to carefully stir until mixture comes to a boil. Turn on high and stir until it reaches the soft ball stage (my thermometer says soft ball is 240°, but I took it to 245°). The longer it cooks the more sugar will caramelize and turn the fondant brown, so cook as quickly as possible for a white finished product. Remove from heat and do not stir again.  Pour fondant into a buttered 9x13-inch glass pan. Do not scrape out the cooking pan! Cool until the bottom of the glass pan is barely warm to the touch and the fondant is not hot anymore.

Scrape the fondant out of the glass dish and into the bowl of a standing mixer. Turn on speed 1 for a few minutes, and then to speed two. (I used the kneading attachment at first and switched to the beaters at the end. You could probably use either of them successfully if you are using a Bosch. It is quite thick, so other mixers might have a difficult time kneading/mixing it.) The fondant will start out with a clear, glossy, and caramel-like texture and will turn to an opaque, white, and crumbly mixture. At this point, continue beating/kneading until it turns smooth again; it will be white and glossy looking, but it will be thick enough to collect on the beaters, as shown.

You can add the flavoring extract at this time by forming a well in the middle and kneading it again for a little while, or you can divide the fondant and use different flavorings to the separate containers. (½ tsp almond extract will give it a strong almond flavoring, which I love, but if you would prefer a more subtle flavor, use less.) If you are not frosting the cookies immediately, refrigerate the fondant.

Once you are ready to frost cookies, bring the fondant to room temperature and add a few Tablespoons of cream (or milk if you wish). Stir to desired frosting consistency, adding more cream, a little at a time until you have the desired consistency. (It starts out quite thick, but just keep adding a little cream or milk until it is a spreadable consistency.) Divide into bowls and add food coloring to each bowl (I use Wilton concentrated paste sold in 1 oz containers). You can add a small amount of flavoring at this time if you didn’t add it earlier.

Frost cookies using a knife to smooth the fondant on top of the cookie. It will turn glossy when you let it sit for a moment afterward. Fondant frosting will go further than you think! Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

*Want to know what our Mom always did with the fondant leftovers? She would roll the white fondant into small balls and dip them in chocolate. Then she served the round chocolates with almond fondant filling on a tray with our other Christmas goodies. Yum!