What is the purpose of cornstarch in shortbread cookies

Kathy
  • Posted by: Kathy
  • September 15, 2013
  • 58637 views
  • 6 Comments

6 Comments

boulangere September 16, 2013
Chef Bo Friburg has a recipe for shortbread cookies using 25% rice flour, which lends a lovely crunch. It also calls for powdered sugar because of its water-binding property. Sorry, but the recipe is at work. I'll post the proportions tomorrow.
 
vvvanessa September 15, 2013
Cornstarch (or rice flour, which I use), helps to keep the cookies to stay sandy and tender because it doesn't have gluten in it. If an all-wheat flour dough gets overworked, it can result in a tough, dense cookie. Some recipes do use powdered sugar because of the cornstarch (or some other gluten-free starch like tapioca) already in it for the same reason.
 

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boulangere September 15, 2013
Drat, will I ever learn not to hit the Add Answer button too fast? Butter. It consists of 75-80% butterfat, 18% water, and 2& milk solids. Proportionally speaking, that's actually a lot water, so to bind it up with some additional cornstarch is a good thing.
 
boulangere September 15, 2013
I use powdered sugar in shortbread cookies. It contains a bit of cornstarch to prevent the sugar from caking. It also very effectively binds with water, and shortbread cookies are all about butter. By adding a bit more cornstarch, you're guaranteeing that your cookies will be as dry as they need to be, verging on crisp.
 
ATG117 September 15, 2013
I've never used cornstarch in shortbread cookies.
 
Pat M. December 28, 2016
To keep the powdered sugar from clumping
 
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