Almond shortbread with atta flour and white sugar

Apparently, the type of sugar used can affect the spread and the color of the cookie baked. The effect of color is obvious. The spread is less so. In this experiment, I try using all white sugar in the shortbread, and see how it looks.

Recipe: Almond shortbread with atta flour and white sugar (double portion)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 cup atta flour
- 4 TB cornstarch
- 1 tp coarse kosher salt
- 12 TB softened butter
- 5 TB white sugar
- raw almonds, soaked for 30 minutes and halved

Procedure:
1. Mix almond meal, atta flour, cornstarch, kosher salt and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Cut in the butter. Use hands to work on the dough until it's homogenous and soft.
3. Form dough balls in mini muffin pans. Top with raw almonds.
4. Bake at 250-300F for about 30 minutes.
5. Turn shortbread out to a rack. Return to oven to dry at 150F for about 1-2 hours.

Results:
3:59pm, soft dough formed:

4:08pm, soft dough scooped by a fork:

4:37pm, shortbread just out of oven:

4:42pm, shortbread placed on rack, to be returned to oven to dry at 150F:

A bite the next day:

Observations:
1. When I compare this experiment with my former ones using atta flour as well, it seems like the texture of the dough is largely determined by the softness of the butter. Shortbread made from soft dough does not seem to fall apart as easily when turned out after baking.
2. The shortbread has a crunch feel and holds reasonably good together.

After this time, I feel like experimenting whether egg can replace butter in creating the crumb of the shortbread.