I made these last week for my brother, who loves ginger, and his 34th birthday. I'm not really a huge fan of crystallized ginger myself, so I made these more for him. But in the end I ended up loving them anyways. The ginger flavor didn't really come through as much as I would have liked, though. Next time I'd use more of both types of ginger, particularly the fresh ginger. These definitely get better with age, too. If using a quarter sheet pan, it's a little bit smaller than the 9x13" pan and the baking time probably needs to be increased. Since this is the pan I used, mine came out slightly underbaked.
Double Ginger Shortbread
Yield: 32 cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups (3 stick) salted butter, at room temp
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1 tbl grated fresh ginger
1 tbl pure vanilla extract
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
DIRECTIONS
Butter the bottom and sides of a 9x13" square baking dish or quarter sheet pan. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, crystallized ginger, fresh ginger, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Turn the mixer off and dump in the flour all at once. Turn the mixer to low speed and mix until the dough just begins to clump and come together, about 1 minutes.
Dump the dough out into the buttered pan and press into a flat even layer. Using a sharp knife, score the dough into 32 rectangles. Using the tines of a fork, prick each piece two times, going all the way to the bottom of the dough. You can flour the knife or fork if they begin to stick. Freeze the dough while you preheat the oven.
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the shortbread for 30-40 minutes or until dry and light golden brown on top. Remove from the oven onto a rack and immediately re-cut the lines. Let cool completely before removing. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
SOURCE
adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine.
