Herbal Dynasty Chai Scottish Shortbread

The time has come. I've infused my butter, and now I get to make tea treats!! First up: shortbread cookies. These seemed like the perfect first foray into tea-infused treats. (Don't worry, I have big plans for cupcakes too!) So, I went through my tea selection and pulled out my Herbal Dynasty Chai from Sereneteaz . This is a really delicious, light chai made with roobios tea, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon & vanilla. It's almost floral, and a good introduction for the non-chai drinkers out there.

I'm pleasantly surprised how these turned out since I've never fully adapted a recipe for myself before. But, they have an excellent, delicate texture with a sweet, tea flavor. I'm thinking over the next couple days the tea flavor will become slightly more pronounced, but it unfolds nicely in your mouth as you eat the cookie. I would like to try this with some other tea varieties.

Tea-Infused Scottish Shortbread
recipe adapted from The Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary Cookbook

Prep Time: 10 minutes (plus time to infuse the butter with tea)
Total Time: About 1 hour
Yields: 24 - 2" x 1" bars

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup (1 1/2 sticks) tea-infused butter, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (plus 1 to 2 tsp, reserved for later)
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• splash of good-quality vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, salt & vanilla.
3. Gently stir-in the all purpose flour.
4. Lightly knead the mixture until it is well blended.
5. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 8-inch square baking pan. Pierce the dough deeply with a fork all over in a decorative pattern. Then sprinkle with 1 to 2 tsp of sugar.
6. Bake until the shortbread is lightly browned and darker at the edges, 45 to 50 minutes.
7. Immediately cut into bars while still warm, then cool in the pan or on a rack.

Enjoy!!