Nubby Granola Shortbread
This breakfast-inspired shortbread is a great way to use your favorite granola. It adds a nice crunch to the buttery cookie. Sandy ultrafine rice flour makes a melt-in-your-mouth fine texture. It's delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 cups your favorite granola
- 3/4 cup walnut pieces pecans or almonds would work but lack that characteristic tannic edge of walnuts
- 2 cups white rice flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into 1/2-inch cubes, well chilled
Finish
- flaky sea salt
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Fit a sheet of parchment paper into a quarter-sheet pan (9 by 13 inches). Lightly mist the parchment with cooking spray.
- In a food processor, combine the granola, nut pieces, white rice flour, granulated sugar, and kosher salt, and pulse until the mixture is pebbly and fine.
- Add the butter and pulse another 8 to 10 times, until the mixture feels like damp, coarse breadcrumbs. The butter should almost disappear into the dry ingredients but not be taken so far that the dough is clumping and gathering around the blade.
- Scatter the dough evenly in the prepared sheet pan. Use your knuckles to lightly press the crumb into an even layer. It should be about 1/2 inch thick. Do not apply too much pressure, as this would make the shortbread dense and gummy.
- Bake until the edges of the shortbread are lightly browned, and the center feels soft but cooked through, 35 to 40 minutes (see tip).
- Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the surface with flaky sea salt. While the shortbread is still hot, use a small knife to score it into 24 squares.
- Let cool completely, then cut the cookies, still in the pan, along the scored lines and dust with powdered sugar.
Notes
The pan of shortbread can be held in the freezer for up to 1 month and baked from frozen.
The shortbread can be stored, tightly wrapped at room temperature, for up to 1 week.
TECHNIQUE TIP: It's tricky to tell when an unfamiliar recipe is done in your oven. Never throw away a seemingly botched batch of anything — there's always another purpose for it. If the baked shortbread tastes undercooked or feels gummy, invert the shortbread onto a clean sheet pan, so the crumbs spill out. Break it up with your fingers and bake again at 325 F for 10 minutes. Now you have instant streusel. Is the shortbread overbaked and dry? Tip the crumbs into a food processor and blend until fine and add big handfuls to your next layer cake.