Slow-Cooked Shortbread

Shortbread cookies are inherently simple — flour, sugar, and butter are just about the only things you need to make these rich, crumbly cookies. But like most super simple recipes, there are seemingly infinite variations, from shape to flour blend to mix-in to baking method. One thing that all shortbread cookies benefit from is a slow bake in a consistent oven. Since they’re such a crumbly cookie without much in the way of a binder, they need that time for the sugar to melt and bring everything together without getting too deeply browned. That can be challenging to achieve in a traditional oven, but the consistent and precise temperature control of the Anova Precision Oven makes it the perfect baking vessel for shortbread. Because the oven retains so much moisture, we’ve found that our shortbread cookies benefit from a relatively low ratio of butter to flour. When you make the dough in the food processor, which we find to be the easiest and most convenient method, you’ll notice that it looks kind of like a crumbly mess. However, once it is firmly packed into the baking dish, it’ll hold its shape and bake into a delightfully rich cookie that slices easily into perfect shortbread fingers. These cookies are at their best within 48 hours of baking. For longer storage, we recommend freezing in a vacuum seal or high-quality freezer bag with all of the air removed.