Cornstarch? We Don't Have Cornstarch!

I spoke in a previous blogpost about an easy recipe for vanilla shortbread, which I dipped in chocolate. Since these cookies went over so well during the holidays, I decided I would make a batch to bring to my Alma Mater when I visit this coming week and give the cookies out to friends like Propertius II and Ponticus. When I was making the dough last night, I only had 3/4 of the corn starch necessary to make the cookies. Industrius as always, Servia thought we should replace the missing cornstarch with either flour or powdered sugar. We settled on a half and half mixture of the two in order to try to preserve the fine grain of the cornstarch with the powdered sugar but not make them too sweet (hence the flour).

The cookies looked similar, but did not feel quite as heavy coming out of the oven. Tasting one, I realized that the flavor of the cookie is actually enhanced by the powdered sugar, but the texture is too light for the cookies.

Cookies, waiting to be dipped.

Update 02/01/11: Cookies were a hit amongst my friends at my Alma Mater, although I still ended up with some left over. Even Cerinthus liked them.

Note: The reason this blogpost is titled "Cornstarch! We Don't Have Constarch!" is because Servia went to Trader Joe's and remembered that we needed cornstarch for the cookies. When she asked, the employee said in a very severe tone: "We don't have cornstarch."