~Shortbread Cookies~

Shortbread (Ghraybeh) is very simple cookie, containing only 3 ingredients, but as with many Middle-Eastern pastries, the recipe is almost always poorly documented and frustratingly vague. Chef Ramzi uses cups for measure, which is terrible when used with non-liquid ingredients. I encountered complete failure on the first attempt, but have since been able to perfect the recipe. Ghraybeh can be eaten alone, or used to sandwich dulce de leche as I have done here. For the recipe of dulce de leche, please view Lili’s blog here.

Shortbread - Ghraybeh Recipe
Ingredients
300 g cups white, all purpose flour
150 g ghee (dairy, not the vegetable based one)/clarified butter (I have used unsalted butter)
150 g icing sugar (not the icing mixture, which contains cornflour)

Nuts for decoration such as peeled dry pistachio, almonds or pine nuts
Chocolate - Melted for decoration - Optional

Method

1. Cream the ghee and icing sugar in a mixer for 5 minutes until fluffy, creamy and white
2. With the speed on medium, add the flour gradually and incorporate well
3. Now it’s time to use your hands. Grab the mixing bowl and using one hand, keep kneading the mixture for around 10 minutes. This encourages the flour to absorb the fat and creates the all-important texture. The dough will feel oily and loose, but 10 minutes of heavy kneading should be enough
4. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour
5. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cover your baking tray with baking paper
6. Take the pastry out of the fridge. You must work fast here as the pastry will go soft if you handle it too much. Pinch a bit of dough and roll it up to a ball between your hands, flatten it slightly and then place it on top of the baking tray and flatten until the shape is of a round cookie.
7. Repeat until the tray is full, leaving some space between the cookies
8. Decorate with nuts of choice
9. Bake for 15 minutes, then take out of the oven and cool down on a cooling rack.  Eat just as it is or sandwich with Dlce de leche.

If you have dulce de leche (Boiled sweetened condensed milk), you can sandwich it between 2 cookies. If you are making plain cookies, there is a nice step you can add which involves dipping your hands in orange blossom water when you form the balls of dough, which gives the ghraybeh a distinctive aroma. You can also make different shapes and decorate with nuts

* How to make dulce de leche

(Boiled sweetened condensed milk)*

Put a can of condensed milk without labels into a pressure pan. Cover it with water & a tspn of oil, close the pan and wait for the whislte of the pressure cooker, reduce to low heat, let cook for +- 40 minutes. Let it cool completely inside the pan. Don’t open it if it’s hot. It’s very dangerous.

Take our when cool into a container and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using - as it becomes thick in the cold.

You can omit the sweet tin milk filling and make them as below as well in different shapes as you wish: