Hungarian Shortbread

I have always been a fan of really good shortbread. I also am a fan of interesting techniques in baking (even if sometimes I'm very intimidated by them!). So, when I was browsing through the Saveur website, I came across a recipe that caught my eye for what was called 'Hungarian Shortbread'. It's made by making a soft shortbread dough, then dividing it in half and freezing the two balls of dough. After an hour or two, you take the dough out, and grate one ball into your pan, top with a good jam, and then grate the other half onto it and bake. It promised a light, crumbly texture and I couldn't wait to try it. The recipe came together very simply and the results were divine. I also love that you could easily interchange your favorite flavor of jam into the recipe, however, I think a jam that's not overly sweet would work the best, to offset the richness of the shortbread. A few tips I have are to only remove one ball of dough from the freezer at a time and to grate each dough ball onto wax paper and then spread evenly into the pan. Also, the recipe calls for uncultured butter, but I've always used plain, unsalted butter and it turns out beautifully. It would seem hard to mess up this simple and delicious recipe, so give it a try today! Enjoy!

Hungarian Shortbread

Original recipe can be found here.

For the Shortbread:

2 cups flour, plus more as needed

1 tsp. baking powder

1⁄8 tsp. fine salt

1⁄2 lb. unsalted, uncultured butter (like Straus), plus more for pan, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

3⁄4 cup raspberry jam

To Make the Shortbread:

Using a sieve over a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Cream butter in a large bowl, using a hand mixer on high speed, until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and egg yolks; mix until sugar is dissolved and mixture is light, about 4 minutes. With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture; mix until dough just begins to come together, about 1 minute.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; bring it together with your hands. Divide dough in half and form 2 balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap; freeze for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 hours.

Arrange an oven rack in center of oven; heat to 350°. Grease a 10" springform pan with butter. Remove a ball of dough from freezer, unwrap, and grate, using the large holes of a box grater, directly into prepared pan. Gently pat grated dough to even it out. Spread jam evenly over dough, leaving about a 1⁄2" border around edges. Grate remaining dough over jam layer; pat gently until surface is even. Bake until light golden brown, about 25–35 minutes. Let cool completely in pan, on a rack, before cutting into wedges.