The secret ingredient to melt in the mouth-mouth rods and cookies

When it comes to baking, the will does not always match the ability for me. I love the informal, sensory process of the hearty cooking cook, but the precision for baking projects is not exactly one of my strong suits. So if I want to tackle a large baking project, I need a clear, well -written recipe that leaves no room for errors. So I contact Sally McKenny’s amazing website so often, BakeFor everything from my daughter my daughter Strawberry birthday cake To Lemon squares for Thanksgiving. (It is not the Pekanuss cake that my guests could expect, and that’s why I love it.) Bake with McKenney’s recipes feels as if an extremely expert, patient teacher has at my side. When I saw that she published her latest cookbook this autumn Sallys Back 101: Fool -safe recipes from simple to progressiveI couldn’t pre -order it quickly enough.

The things I love in McKenney’s recipes are their tidbits of the back brilliance: tips that I can then use for other baking projects. As I leafed a little insight into the book, I discovered one that practically jumped from the side – McKenney adds Corn starch To your vanilla beans -shortbread bars for a softer texture. I tried it and the results were fantastic: undoubtedly the best shortbread I have ever done, with a smooth, light texture and a beautiful vanilla taste from vanilla extract and real vanilla beans. It is the perfect recipe at the beginner level that still has a lot of wow factor.

“Corn starch gives the shortbread that you just don’t get if you only use flour,” said McKenney me. “It keeps the crumb tender and light, and instead of biting into a hard, crumbly shortbread bar, you get a delicious, butter-like melting structure. My flagship recipe for chewy chocolate biscuits also includes corn starch for maximum softness!” This is the kind of tips that makes a big difference, and when it works for Shortbread, I can hardly wait to try it in my next group of chocolate cookies.

According to McKenney, the book contains about 30 fan favorite recipes from your website. The rest of the recipes is new and includes hearty backs – a first one for her, she says. However, what has not changed is that the trademark and the love of detail have left their fans over the years. “I always want to give the clearest instructions together with notes about how the dough or dough should look and feel in certain places in certain places,” she says, “So you have the feeling that you have a friend who bakes next to you and encourages you with every step of the way.”

Sallys vanilla beans -Shortbread -bars

Smooth, melting mouth, slightly sweet shortbread is an easy joy, and this is the best way I can do. Without other additional flavors, butter and vanilla place in the spotlight. Together with the flour, corn starch offers the shortbread with structure, but the main task is to keep the sticks particularly soft, tender and light. Thanks to the restriction of the baking pan, there is no risk for this dough, a common problem with Shortbread cookies. And as a beautiful bonus, the dough doesn’t have to relax!

Yield: 16 bars
Preparation: 10 minutes
Bake: 28 minutes
In total: 1 hour 15 minutes, including cooling

Ingredients

• 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature (226 g)
• 2/3 cup of granulated sugar (133 g)
• 2 cups of all -purpose flour (250 g)
• 1/4 cup of cup thickness (28g)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Seeds that were scraped off 1/2 of a vanilla bean
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Coarse radio sugar for topping

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 177 ° C. Place a 9-inch square metal baking pan with parchment paper and leave a few centimeters on two opposite sides.
2. Beat the butter and granulated sugar at medium to high speed in a large bowl with a handheld or stand mixer equipped with the paddle until the mixture is light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add flour, corn starch, vanilla, vanilla beans and salt and hit at low speed until they are together. The dough should be thick and stiff.
3. Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan and smooth out the surface as far as possible. Sprinkle with a coarse sugar and sting the surface with a fork a few times.
4. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool for 30 minutes in the pan on a cooling shelf.
5. Lift the shortbread out of the pan by packing the parchment paper overhang. Transferred to a cutting board and cut into squares while they are still slightly warm. Store close at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Reprinted with permission from Sallys Back 101: Fool -safe recipes from Easy to Advanced by Sally McKenney. Copyright © 2025 by Sally McKenney. Published by Clarkson Potter, a reprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a department of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.