Ever since I saw the Christmas cookies that Susan Spungen made for NYT Cooking in 2019, I was obsessed. Every cookie looked like a piece of art and I desperately wanted to replicate each one. It was a revelation! Even though I didn’t know I was going to make a #PASALUBONG cookie tin and box, I bought the fancy cookie stamps from Nordic Ware so I could make the stamped citrus shortbread one day.
While the delicate shapes from these stamps really make the cookies stand out, you can easily use your meat tenderizer for an imprinted pattern in their stead. Besides the cute designs, I wanted the shortbread to have an extra layer of flavor by giving the glaze a Filipino twist. It was a fun experiment adding calamansi and patis to the glaze, which are staples in Filipino cooking.
I’ve never been a stranger to patis or fish sauce. It’s a common condiment paired with calamansi lime to top off arroz caldo. My brand of choice is Three Crabs Fish Sauce by Viet Huong Fish Sauce Company. 😊 My biggest piece of advice is that a little goes a long way when you’re adding patis to dessert. In this glaze, the fresh lime and calamansi concentrate add a burst of acidity to stand up to the sweetness of the powdered sugar and the unabashed saltiness of the patis.
Whether you’re new to patis or use it every day, it’s a delicious ingredient that I encourage you to play with in your cooking and baking. And if you have fresh calamansi available to you, feel free to use that instead of the concentrate.
Stamped Calamansi-Lime Patis Shortbread
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- zest of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Glaze:
- 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sifted powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- zest of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon calamansi concentrate
- 1 ½ teaspoons patis or fish sauce
Instructions
For the Cookies:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.
- Combine butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Zest the lime directly into the bowl. Cream the butter mixture on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until well combined, scraping the bowl a few times as needed.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. Scrape the bowl and fold a few times to make sure everything is well combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut dough in half and let one piece warm up for 30 minutes if it has chilled longer than an hour. Return the other half to the refrigerator.
- Portion the dough into balls equal to 2 tablespoons each. One at a time, roll a ball of dough into flour and set on work surface. If dough balls soften too much, return them to the refrigerator to firm up for a few minutes. You want it cool, but malleable. Dip cookie stamp in flour, and press down on the ball of dough until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Remove stamp. (If dough sticks to stamp, carefully peel it off.) Trim the edges using a 2-inch cookie cutter, and transfer dough rounds to 2 silicone mat-lined baking sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Once you have stamped out all the cookies, knead together the scraps to make a few more. Chill in the freezer until very firm, about 10 minutes. When cold, brush off any excess flour with a dry pastry brush.
- Bake until cookies just start to turn golden underneath, 16-18 minutes.
For the Glaze:
- Zest one lime into a small bowl. Add the confectioners’ sugar, lime juice, butter, fish sauce and calamansi concentrate and whisk until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add more calamansi concentrate. If it is too thin, add more confectioners’ sugar. It should be the consistency of thin custard.
- Transfer warm cookies to a wire rack set over a baking sheet. While the cookies are warm, use a pastry brush to glaze cookies. Repeat until all the cookies are glazed. Cool completely. Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
