Some may overlook the shortbread cookie's simple ratio of one part sugar, two parts fat, and three parts flour, and write it off as boring, but we see this cookie as a blank slate for creativity. The buttery nature of this cookie is delicious on its own, but there's one unexpected ingredient you can add that will make your mouth water.

Filipino-American baker Abi Balingit adds just half a teaspoon of fish sauce (specifically Rufina patis) to her Stamped Calamansi Fish Sauce Shortbread cookies. Fish sauce functions like salt in a recipe, adding savory, umami depth and complexity, and Balingit notes that the sweet-savory flavor combination has long been in her family's traditional recipes.

Fish sauce can be added directly into cookie dough like an extract or used as a glaze. In her shortbread recipe, Balingit brushes a glaze of calamansi citrus juice, lime zest, powdered sugar, and fish sauce on top of her fish-shaped shortbread cookies and allows the glaze to harden.