Viennese Shortbread

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 15 pieces, you will need:

• 1 160 g butter
• 2 50 g icing sugar
• 3 10 g Vanilla sugar
• 4 220 g flour
• 5 2 pinches fine (or table) salt
• 6 30 g egg white
• 7 100 g dark chocolate
• Total weight: 570 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
35 min.	2 hours	30 min.	3 hours 5 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Preparation of the dough In a small bowl, pour 160 g butter cut into small pieces. If the butter is cold (it comes out of the fridge), let it soften at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
2	Sift 50 g icing sugar over butter, then add 10 g Vanilla sugar.
3	Mix with a wooden spatula until smooth.
4	Add 220 g flour, 2 pinches fine (or table) salt and 30 g egg white.
5	Mix until you have a smooth dough. You can do this with a spatula again, or simply by hand, which is very quick. Preheat your oven to 180°C (360°F).
6	Put the dough in a pastry bag lined with a fluted tip.
7	Piping and baking Pipe the dough onto a sheet of baking paper on a baking sheet in any shape or size you like. If you have trouble because the dough is too hard, pop the piping bag into the microwave for a few seconds, or hold it between your hands, to soften it.
8	Bake for about 30 minutes, be careful not to overcook them, the shortbread should remain soft.
9	Let cool on a wire rack. Set aside the baking sheet and the paper.
10	Chocolate topping Melt in a bain-marie or microwave oven 100 g dark chocolate. I recommend using a small container with high sides, in this case a simple jam jar, it will be much easier to dip the cookies.
11	Dip the end, or ends, of each cookie into the melted chocolate.
12	Place them on the baking sheet, do this for all the shortbread and then put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
13	Your Viennese shortbread is ready.

Remarks

If your shortbread flattens out after baking, as in this photo, it's probably because you used a little too much butter.

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