So tonight's experiment was a spin-off of a favorite recipe for shortbread that I found on Epicurious.com. Fitting name, don't you think?!
Here's the original:
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup superfine granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts.
Blend butter, sugar, vanilla and salt with a fork until combined well. Sift flout into mixture and blend with fork until mixture forms a soft dough.
Transfer the dough to an ungreased large baking sheet and pat into a 9 by 4 1/2 inch rectangle. Crimp edges decoratively and prick dough all over with fork tines. Score dough crosswise with the back of a butter knife into 8 sections. Sprinkle with chopped toasted nuts, if desired, and press gently into dough with your fingertips.
Bake in middle of oven at 375 degrees until edges are golden, about 15 mins. Cool on baking sheet on a rack 10 minutes, then cut into slices with a sharp knife. Transfer slices to a rack using a spatula and cool completely.
Now, I have made this exact recipe a few times and always had rave reviews. For our annual bake sale at work, I made a couple batches, one like the original and one with a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon added. Both were well-liked.
Well, tonight I thought I'd make a little treat for the weekend. You see my oldest daughter, Carman, will be visiting me and she may be bringing her sister along and I wanted to have a sweet snack for them. I'm terribly excited to see Carman, she lives in Pennsylvania so I don't get to see her often. I'm also happy to see Kellie and look forward to spending time with them. But, I digress.
So, I went to make the shortbread. The reason I like this recipe is that it's quick, easy, and uses ingredients you usually have around the house. I stress "usually"! I put the butter out to soften on my way to a Relay for Life Team Captain meeting. It was just about right when I got home. Into the bowl it goes. Then I reach for my canister of sugar only to find that I barely have a tablespoon of sugar, let alone 1/4 cup! And, actually, I needed 1/2 cup since I was making a double batch. Did I let that stop me? Oh, no! I had a bag of brown sugar and thought "why not"? So, sifting it into the bowl, I proceeded with the recipe. But then, while getting the salt down from the cupboard, I thought, "how about a little nutmeg to spice it up a bit"? So, I tossed in a 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg to the mix. Patting it all out on the cookie sheet to about a 12 x 8 rectangle, pricking and scoring, I decided to toss on some sliced almonds. Oh, I scored it to make 24 cookies.
Well, it took about 20 minutes to bake. A couple corner pieces broke while tranferring them to the cooling rack, so that gave me an excuse to try one out. As if I needed one - right?! Got to make sure I don't serve disgusting tasting food to my children!! Anyway, it tasted great! Success!! And here's what they looked like on the plate:
Don't they look scrumptous?! I promise to be very strong and not have another one until Saturday. Pray for me!!!! And let me know about your experiments!!
Until next time!
Jackie
