This vegan, gluten-free holiday citrus shortbread is festive, simple to make, and have a tender, melt-in-your-mouth crumb. Made with Pamela’s All-Purpose Flour Artisan Blend and Pamela’s Almond Flour. Recipe and photo created by The Full Helping.
- 1 lb (2 sticks) vegan butter
- ¾ cup confectioners' sugar (this makes the cookie crumb really tender, but you can substitute cane sugar if that's what you have)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons orange zest (about 1 large orange's worth), plus 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed juice from the fruit
- 2 cups Pamela's All-Purpose Flour Artisan Blend
- ¾ cup Pamela's Almond Flour (or almond flour)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Yield:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer and a large mixing bowl), beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until they're fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, orange zest, and orange juice.
Add the flours and salt (you can do this in two rounds to avoid flour flying everywhere as you mix) and mix at low speed till the dough is well combined. It will be soft. Shape it into two disks, wrap it with saran, and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to chill.
Preheat your oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Flour a clean surface and use a rolling pin to roll the disks of dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into shapes, then transfer them to the baking sheets. Prick each cookie a couple times with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are firmed up, but not browning (it's OK if they're just barely golden, but they shouldn't get dark at the edges). Transfer the baking sheets to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes, then transfer the cookies from the sheet to the rack and allow them to cool entirely before enjoying.
Notes
If you'd like a slightly different flavor, you can try the cookies with either lemon or lime zest and juice (meyer lemon would be pretty wonderful). And you can feel free to get as creative with the decorating/cutting as you like!