Blood Orange, Basil, and Bourbon Shortbread
Bittersweet and almost berry-like, the blood orange is balanced with the earthy sweetness of the basil in these shortbread cookies for a flavor combination that sounds like it shouldn’t work but totally does. Add in the bourbon for kicks and you have yourself a cocktail that you can take a bite out of. Yields about 50-60 cookies, depending on shape
Servings
50-60cookies
Cook Time
22-27minutes
Servings
50-60cookies
Cook Time
22-27minutes
Ingredients
Blood Orange, Basil, and Bourbon Shortbread
Blood Orange and Bourbon Drizzle
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy–about 2-5 minutes.
  2. Mix together your flour and blood orange zest. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until just combined.
  3. Add the blood orange juice, bourbon, basil, and walnuts. Mix until just incorporated. The dough will be soft and sticky.
  4. Split the dough in half. Roll each half into a ball and flatten into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 300°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove your chilled dough from the fridge.
  6. Sprinkle flour on your countertop and on top of your dough. Using a rolling pin, roll your dough until it’s about 1/3″ thick. Using a cookie cutter or a knife, cut into whatever shapes you like. (For some reason, I’m fond of this particular cookie in a triangular shape).
  7. Place cookies on the baking sheet. Using a fork, poke the dough a couple times. This will help keep the cookies from rising too much in the oven. Place the filled sheet pan in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes until the shortbreads feel solid (this will keep them from spreading in the oven).
  8. Bake about 22-27 minutes until the bottoms of the shortbreads just begin to turn golden brown. The top should still look a bit pale. If your cookies are a bit thicker, you may have to leave them in a bit longer to crisp up the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool a bit before transferring to a wire rack.
  9. Once your shortbreads have cooled, combine the ingredients for your blood orange and bourbon drizzle. If you want the consistency to be a bit thicker, don’t be afraid to add some extra powdered sugar. Using a spoon, whisk, or–my tool of choice–a sandwich bag with one tip cut off, drizzle your glaze over your cookies. Allow them to dry on the cooling rack or on a piece of wax or parchment paper.
Recipe Notes

Blood oranges, as beautiful as they are, have an annoyingly short season.  If you want to make these after they’re done for the year, you can easily substitute the blood oranges with regular oranges or grapefruit (though I’d only use one large one instead of two!).

If you have particularly juicy oranges, you may need to give these a bit of a knead in flour before you roll them.  That’s perfectly fine.  You don’t want them to stick to the counter while you’re trying to move them onto the baking sheet.  Unless you go completely overboard, a little extra dusting here and there won’t hurt.

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