In response to this article I have only one question to ask:
HOW AM I DOING, BITTMAN?
LEMON SHORTBREAD
Ok, so this is ostensibly still part of my aforementioned Donna Hay kick, and credit goes to her for the recipe. However, being me, I totally changed it. Her version was for shortbread circles, which I didn't want. I wanted shortbread fingers, which I always think look nice and organised. And I also knew that it would be significantly easier and less messy if I just manhandled the dough into a baking tin and cut it into rectangles rather than rolling it out and cutting it into circles. So. Yeah.
Scrappy Shortbread Shortcut!
The recipe below is the one I used aka invented on the fly based on kitchen contents and oven times and desired shortbread results. See the BEETLE NOTES for what and why it made sense to me at the time.
LEMON SHORTBREAD
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 sticks butter, soft
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbs lemon zest (or lemon extract)
Beat butter and confectioner's sugar in your mixmaster until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and lemon and mix again. Add the flour in batches, beating after each addition until the dough comes together.
Press the dough into a non stick baking pan (I used my 9 x 13 brownie pan here), aiming for about one centimetre thickness all over (what I think of as the standard shortbread finger thickness but honestly what the hell do I know).
If, like me, you have excess dough after that, you can absolutely pull out a springform pan and press the dough into the bottom, with the express intent of cutting it into petticoat tails. Or you can make thicker shortbread fingers. Or you can freeze the dough and make more later.
All roads lead to shortbread, is what I'm saying.
Score the dough BEFORE you put it in the oven. With a paring knife, lightly draw the lines where you want the cookie breaks to be, and use a fork to pierce the top of each piece a few times.
 |
| Fingers |
 |
| Petticoat Tails |
Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes. You will have to keep checking because the cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your dough in the pan. It's done when the top is a nice deep golden brown.
You'll probably have to rescore the dough at least once if not twice during cooking. And you definitely want to do this. Because shortbread is so crumbly, trying to cut it once it's cooked and cooled will just result in total destruction, and you will be presenting people will broken bits of cookie and explaining that they were SUPPOSED to be rectangles and triangles. Scoring and rescoring just ensure that they break evenly and cleanly and it makes everyone's lives so much easier and more enjoyable in the long run.
Let it cool in the pan completely before finishing off the breaks and removing.
BEETLE NOTES
So Donna Hay had these cut into 4mm thick circles (???) and a resulting baking time of 8-10 minutes. Mine did take almost an hour (which is the standard shortbread baking time I've come across) because they were significantly thicker and also done in a baking pan as opposed to alone on a baking sheet.
She also says to swap out 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour with rice flour. This I am sure is interesting. I would imagine it makes everything a bit lighter, and possibly a teensy bit sweeter. However, I had no rice flour, so it was all all-purpose for me.
Same reasoning behind the lemon zest actually. It was a Wednesday, I'd used up my lemons with fish on Sunday night, I only had lemon extract. Subbing it for the same amount seemed to work, the dough smelt nice and lemony, and my most excellent tasters reported that the taste absolutely came through, but was not overpowering or too tart.
I have to pause here and say that this winter especially I've had such good luck with using extracts in place of zests. I know it's not the same thing, and definitely much less "farm to table" but at the same time it means I can buy a bottle that keeps almost indefinitely and then when I need it it's there, as opposed to buying a lemon which I then have to throw away if I don't use it pretty soon. It's also proved itself a really neat and fun way to add flavour to things, thereby helping me perform my insane Beetle culinary experiments.
These went down a TREAT with Mum and my LL's. I ended up giving Mum the pan of petticoat tails, and the pan of fingers to the LL's. They reported back that the Lemon Shortbread fulfilled their two basic criteria, namely that a) lemony and b) buttery. They approved. Huzzah.
I also had the additional approbation of aunt and uncle who visited last weekend. I put them plus Lemon Thumbprints on a cookie plate and sent it out to the library after dinner. Ten minutes later when I was just putting the tea things together, my aunt came back with the cookie plate, upon which only the shortbread were present.
Me: Do you need more Thumbprints?
Aunt: No.
Me: What's up?
Aunt: [handing me the plate] These need to stay out here. Away from me.
So there you have it, Bittman. Butter is back, it tastes like lemon, and it is so good.
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