United Kingdom of Shortbread - English Toffee Scottish Shortbread

When I said "'Tis the season" in my last post, I was referring to the season for beverages of good cheer.  Sadly, 'tis also the season of the flu.  (sigh)  Even more sadly, my sister-in-law has it.  Since I am unable to share her own Hot Buttered Rum recipe with her, I decided I would make her something to facilitate a quick recovery so she can partake of the good cheer.  ;)

There are several food related remedies for the flu.  Of these, Chicken Noodle Soup is the best known, however, Matzo Ball, Miso Soup and Hot -n- Sour Soup work wonders as well.  But, there is something that works equally as well, if not better.  It's truly good for whatever ails you.  A nostrum of epic power.  A sovereign specific, if you will.

Shortbread

Yes, shortbread (OK, and Rolo Cookies, but were are going to focus on shortbread right now).  The eggless elixir vitae, the panacean pastry, the catholicon cookie, that wafer of wonder.  Yep, Shortbread.

I wanted to do something a little special this time.  Partially to thank her for giving me the awesome Hot Buttered Rum recipe, but also because she really LOVES shortbread cookies and I have made simple Scottish Shortbread for her many times before.  Since I had been toying with this idea for awhile now, I decided it was time to stop contemplating and get to implementing my master plan for Scottish Shortbread made with English Toffee chips and Irish Cultured Butter (sort of a United Kingdom of Cookies).  Laced with Celtic Grey Salt, or course. 

Thus it was that I embarked upon shortbread-dom to banish the fiendish flu. 

This is the simple 1-2-3 Scottish shortbread recipe I posted last Christmas, though the method is slightly different due to one simple addition, Heath English Toffee Chips...  YUM.

UK Shortbread

1 tsp Celtic Grey Salt
4 oz Granulated Sugar
8 oz Kerry Gold Irish Butter (Unsalted)
12 oz Unbleached Flour
4 oz Heath English Toffee Bits

Place Butter, Sugar and Salt in a mixing bowl.

Cream together until light and fluffy.

Slowly work in the Flour until a crumbly dough forms.

Add the Toffee Chips and work in with a spatula (it works better than the mixer does)

Place on a large piece of waxed paper.

Press the crumbly dough into a log.

Roll the waxed paper around it and roll on the counter (this seems to work fairly well)

Remove waxed paper and wrap in plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 4 hours.

When you remove the dough from the refrigerator, begin preheating the oven to 325 degrees.

Slice into 1/4 inch slices and lay them out on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, just until the bottoms begin to brown but the sides are still pale.

Leave the Shortbreads on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes to give the hot toffee bits a chance to cool a little bit, cause they are gonna be REALLY hot and REALLY sticky.

Move to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Serve with your favorite herbal tea.

or just eat them one by one....YUM!

Yep, my sister-in-law be 'right as rain' in no time.  :)

Mangia!!
~~

On the Trail of Petticoat Tails - Shortbread in a Stoneware Mold

As I talked about a couple posts back, I have a petticoat tail mold for my shortbread baking pleasure. I quickly found out that my traditional 1-2-3 recipe was not gonna fly when using this earthenware pan. So some alterations were in order....

Well, 11 batches of Shortbread later, I think I have come up with a stoneware mold recipe that I am happy with; along with a few tricks with the oven temperature to keep the edges from getting too brown. The texture finally seems right. (or at least the way I have always liked my shortbread) Sandy, with a little bit of a chew too it, but still melts in your mouth. Oozing with butter flavor, lightly sweet with just a hint of a saltiness.

The perfect accompaniment to a cup of Darjeeling or Earl Grey.

Shortbread Petticoat Tails

78 g Cultured European Butter (It's usually Unsalted)
45 g Super Fine Sugar
3/4 tsp Celtic Grey Salt (Kosher Salt will work just fine)
140 g AP Flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat the butter until creamy and smooth.

Add Super Fine Sugar and Salt....

Then beat again until light (not fluffy - If you aerate it too much it will try to rise in the oven).

Remove bowl from the mixer and work in the flour with a fork or a spatula.

You want to mix the flour until you achieve a cornmeal like texture.....

That will just barely hold together when squeezed.

Sprinkle the mold with a thin layer of AP Flour.

Pour the crumbly dough into the mold

and press it in, starting at the middle.... and working your way our to the edge,

making sure it's all nice and even in thickness. (it took me a couple times to get this right)

Prick the backside with a fork to allow steam to escape. (there won't be as much if you used the European butter, since it contains less water)

Bake for 5 minutes; then reduce the heat to 275 and continue baking for an additional 30 minutes. (this heats up the stone to get good color, but doesn't allow the butter to over-brown at the edges)
Remove from the oven and let it set for 10 minutes.

Then work around the edge with an offset spatula, just to make sure the sides didn't stick.

Flip the mold over and release the shortbread round.

Slice with a VERY long knife into wedges and let cool completely. (the texture changes dramatically as it cools)

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea, or coffee.

Or simply by itself.... YUM!!!


Mangia!!
~~

P.S. For the curious.... Teacup by Duchess Bone China "Thistle" Pattern; side plate by Paragon Bone China, no pattern name that I am aware of.

Easy as 1-2-3 - Traditional Scottish Shortbread

I have already established the fact that I am a DaSwiGerm, or Danish, Swiss, & German; AKA "Euro-Mutt", several posts back, but when it comes to Holiday baking, my traditions have branch out a little. I am bringing this up now, because over the next month I'm going to be tackling a hodge podge of traditional as well as non-traditional holiday baking projects. Things such as Gingerbread men, Gingerbread Houses, Pfeffernussen, Spekulatius, Buche de Noel, Truffles, Springerle, Linzer Augen, Gelatin Fudge, Haselnuss Divinity and Turkish delights. All of this culminating in Aebleskivers on Christmas morning.

One of these projects that is not necessarily a "family tradition", though it has become a personal one, is Shortbread. I LOVE shortbread... all kinds of shortbread... From my mom's Lemon Surprise Shortbread to Coconut Shortbread, Hazelnut Shortbread, Green Tea Shortbread and Orange/Vanilla bean shortbread. Did I mention I love shortbread?

But even though my family roots began far from the highlands, my all time favorite is traditional Scottish shortbread. Now when I say this, I really mean traditional... Slightly sandy and crisp, lightly sweet, deliciously buttery with a touch of saltiness. Totally awesome!!!

I have 1 wooden mold (a thistle of course, complete with sun rays) that I use to make large 6 inch cookies. I think this is the size that is broken over the bride's head when she is taken over the threshold of her home for the first time, but I am not sure about that. It makes it a little difficult to eat, but someday I will invest in a "petticoat tail" mold, but not right now. (The petticoat tails are cut into wedges). I sometimes just make small rounds and dock or prick a sunburst in them to celebrate Yule and the return of the sunlight.

Now lets talk ingredients cause the recipe is so simple it will blow your mind.

I make my Scottish shortbread with European butter. When I make flavored shortbread, I use American butter, but for me, the Scottish shortbread is uber-special so I make the investment (although Kerrygold brand is Irish, I am sure there is a joke in there somewhere, but it eludes me).

There is NO vegetable shortening in shortbread - Never, Ever. Even though they share a common root word, all this means is that the fat inhibits the formation of gluten (which is a stretchy long protein) and "shortens" the dough. Butter, which is an animal derived shortening, does this just as well, especially European butter which is about 85% fat, as opposed to American butter which is only 80%.

Originally, Shortbread was made with Oat flour instead of Wheat. I use unbleached AP flour anyway, becuase for all the weird grains I have in my freezer, oat flour is not one of them. I have noticed a lot of recipes out there claim that rice flour is used for "traditional" recipes... This makes no sense to me, since shortbread was made with what was available in the kitchens at the time. I doubt very much that any Scottish woman had rice flour just lying around in the 1400's when most of the time they didn't even have wheat flour.

There are several advantages to using Oat flour, I suppose. Not only does it lower serum cholesterol, which kind of counteracts the effects of the Butter you are about to eat, but it is also lower in gluten. All butter contains at least a little water, even the European butter has water in it. Water forms gluten, so if you are using a flour that is low in gluten, then you will have a finer texture to your shortbread. As a bonus, oat flour also contains antioxidants that help your baked goods remain fresher for longer periods of time. Which makes a whole lotta sense if you are making Butter rich dough before the age of refrigeration. With all this, is it no wonder that the Scots used Oat flour for their delicious shortbread? I am sticking with AP flour though. ;)

Eggs - There are NO eggs in shortbread, well, at least not in Scottish Shortbread. There is also no flavoring, at all... No Vanilla... Butter is the flavoring of Scottish Shortbread, which is why the quality of the European butter you use is SO important. :) So please find a Butter that you like the flavor of. If you want a flavored shortbread, do what I do, use American butter, cause the European butter is way too expensive to cover up with extracts and such.

OK, now the recipe.....

Scottish Shortbread

1-2-3

There ya go, that is all there is to it.... Hmmm, I guess I should flesh this out a little bit.

OK....

1 part Granulated Sugar
2 parts Unsalted European Butter
3 parts Unbleached AP Flour.

TA DA!

OK, enough of the teasing.... But this is by weight, not volume...

4 oz Granulated Sugar
8 oz Unsalted European Butter
12 oz Unbleached AP Flour
1/2 tsp of Kosher Salt,  (though Celtic Grey Salt or Fleur de Sel are better)

The ingredient list is THAT simple, and infinitely scale-able. Such as 6 oz sugar, 12 oz butter, 18 oz AP flour & 3/4 tsp Salt...... 10 oz sugar, 20 oz butter, 30 oz AP flour & 1 1/4 tsp Salt... and so on and so forth. (Please note that 1/4 tsp Salt is necessary per 4 oz of Butter)

The fun part is the assembly. So here we go.

Whisk Flour, Sugar and Salt together in a medium bowl.

Add sliced COLD butter and begin rubbing it into the flour mixture (just like making Pate Brisee)

Bring the dough together slowly,

but try not to melt the butter with the heat of your hands (you can use a pastry cutter as well)

Sprinkle a wooden mold with either Corn Starch or AP Flour.

Press the dough into the mold.

Sort of "smear" any excess towards the outside of the mold and remove.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F (205C) degrees.
Tap the mold onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

(This takes a little finesse, A LOT of tapping and occasionally some beating)

Bake for 5 minutes at 400F (205C) degrees, then reduce the heat to 325F (162C) and bake an additional 10-15 minutes; checking every 5-10 minutes - do not let the edges brown too much. (which I did on the first one--- Oops! But that's OK, I get to eat that one right away) You want the shortbread to be "just" set in the middle, remember, this is real butter and it will burn very easily. Besides, there is a little bit of carry-over when they are removed from the oven.

In the mean time, redust the mold and fill with more dough, it can be chilling while the first one is cooking... Yes, it takes awhile this way, but they are so awesome look at, that it's almost a shame to eat them.

Then again, It IS Shortbread... (Besides, I had that one that was over done, so I ate it)


Mangia!!
~~