Cornmeal Lime Shortbread Fans
Published Dec. 2, 2020

- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2limes
- 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
- ⅔cup/60 grams fine cornmeal
- ⅔cup/130 grams granulated sugar
- 1teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1cup/225 grams cold, unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1-inch chunks
- ½cup/60 grams confectioners’ sugar
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grate 1 teaspoon zest from the limes. (You can usually get 1 teaspoon from 1 lime, but you may need to grate some zest off the other.) Add to a food processor.
- Step 2
Add flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt and pulse once or twice to combine. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pulse a few more times until some of the crumbs start to come together, but don’t overprocess the dough. It should be somewhat crumbly and not form a ball. (Alternatively, you can mix this in a bowl using two knives, or use a pastry cutter to mix the butter into the flour.)
- Step 3
Press the dough into an even layer in an ungreased, fluted 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom or in a 9-inch pie pan. Prick the dough all over with a fork. Bake until golden brown, about 40 to 50 minutes.
- Step 4
Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Using a butter knife, cut the shortbread into 12 wedges while still warm.
- Step 5
Make the glaze: Halve the zested lime and squeeze 1 tablespoon juice into a small bowl. Whisk in confectioners’ sugar and, if you like, more lime juice to taste. (More lime juice will make the glaze thinner and more tart, while less lime juice yields a thicker, sweeter glaze.) Drizzle glaze over the cooled shortbread, then zest the second lime over the icing before it sets. (Use a citrus zester, if you have one, or a regular zester, if you don’t.)
Private Notes
Comments
From Pooja: Tis the season... for cookies. These are @clarkbar's cornmeal lime shortbread fans but with a few edits: I used cornflour instead of cornmeal and added one egg yolk to give them a more sablé-like texture — sandy and crisp to the bite, tender to the chew.
Just made these cookies. I was careful to not over process the dough. Pricking the dough with a fork disrupted the dough so I used a skewer instead which worked out better. A toothpick might be even better. The cookies have excellent flavor and texture and look lovely as well.
These are easy and delicious. But I couldn’t get the fans out of the pie pan in one piece. Next time I’ll form the dough in a disc on a flat tray and bake with parchment paper.
Loved these, the lime is a great touch. As with MC’s other shortbread recipe (with rosemary) I’ve found that the dough shouldn’t be overprocessed but shouldn’t be underprocessed either—I processed until the dough just started coming together. That way the fork actually pierced the dough when doing the pricking all over. I made one batch that was too sandy. Baked in a tart pan with a removable bottom and parchment paper just in case. They cut well and looked just like the photo. Will definitely make again.
I made them in a springform with parchment on the bottom and added an egg yolk. Have faith—the dough seems fragile and crumbly, but they do firm up when they cool and become sturdy and ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!
Not 5 star. Pretty unattractive. Very granular with the granulated sugar . crumbly. the top is not smooth, it also looks crumbly or way, way to rustic. haven't tasted them yet but I would never serve these to guests. Tip general : whenever I do round cookies like this from a pan, I use a cookie cutter in the center cutting in a two and a half inch circle. and then I cut petals. No crumbly triangle center tips
