
Cranberry Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies
"Cranberry Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies” reprinted from The Ultimate Minnesota Cookie Book: 100 Best Recipes from the Star Tribune’s Holiday Cookie Contest by Lee Svitak Dean and Rick Nelson; Photography by Tom Wallace. Published by the University of Minnesota Press. Copyright 2024 by Lee Svitak Dean and Rick Nelson. Photographs copyright 2024 by Tom Wallace. Used by permission.
Ingredients
For Glaze
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
- 2 to 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange
- juice
For Cookies
- 1 cup flour plus extra for rolling dough
- ¼ cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 to 2 teaspoons freshly chopped rosemary
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and
- cut into small pieces
- 2 to 4 tablespoons chopped dried cranberries
Instructions
For Glaze
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, orange zest, and 2 teaspoons orange juice, adding more orange juice, a teaspoon at a time, until the glaze is slightly runny. Reserve.
For Cookies
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, granulated sugar, rosemary, and cayenne. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. (You may need to add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, to help the dough come together.) Stir in the dried cranberries. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F and line the baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to 1/4 -inch
- thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough and place the cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, gathering up scraps, re-rolling, and cutting until all the dough is used.
- Bake until lightly brown, 21 to 24 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Brush the cookies with the glaze; then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.