This recipe for shortbread buttons arrived in my inbox from Robin Hood and I knew it would be a fun addition to our repertoire of Christmas cookies. I signed up for the Robin Hood Baking Hour newsletters and love that every week I get a new seasonal recipe in my inbox. They are always fun and straightforward recipes with no extravagant ingrdedients.
I have a collection of the Wilton Candy Melts for cake pops and holiday popcorn so thought those would be cute to use in lots of diffrent colours. I did contact Wilton's to check about the whole "nut-free" thing as it seems a little unclear on the packaging and on various internet sources. The email response I got was that the candy melts have no peanut or tree-nuts in them nor are they manufactured on machines that are also used to process products with peanuts or tree nuts but...there are peanuts used in another part of the facility. This means they can not be declared 100% nut-free. We have friends with nut allergies so it's important to me to be aware!
Shortbread Buttons
from www.robinhood.ca
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (softened)
2 egg yolks
1 cups icing sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
chocolate candy wafers
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients (except chocolate candy wafers) in a bowl until a soft dough forms.
3. Use one tablespoon of dough at a time and form a ball with the dough, placing at least one inch apart on the cookie sheet.
4. Press chocolate candy wafer in centre of each cookie.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until edges are lightly golden brown and cookies are set. Let cool 5 minutes on try and then remove to cooling rack.
A few insider tips...
The dough is very dry and didn't come together easily for me with a wooden spoon so I got in there with my hands to add some warmth to help the butter mix in with the dry ingredients.
I used a 15ml measure exactly for each cookie and they were a little too big. I will make them a bit smaller next time.
I pushed down on the candy melts a little too far I think this time and for my final version of these, I will press them down less so the cookies will be a little thicker.
I also am not keen on the little nib on top of the candy melts with the look of these cookies and I think I might try placing the candy melts upside down on the cookies next time.
Happy baking!
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