* Episode One: Shortbread

Today, on COOKING with anna: Shortbread, everybody's favourite Scottish treat. Here we go.

First, find yourself a kitchen. The kitchen plays a fairly important role in cooking. It doesn't have to be as small or charming as mine, but it must have. . .


an oven and. . .


A CUTE LIGHT OVER THE SINK!! Okay, no, that's not really necessary. The Dixie Cup holder is, though.


Go back to the oven and turn it to 350F. You'll notice that my oven has neither a light to indicate when preheating has finished nor temperature markings on the dial. It adds an element of mystery to cooking. Also, you should always check to see if there's a baby in the oven before you turn it on.


Find everything you need and set it out on the counter. I don't actually do this, but it looks pretty nice, doesn't it? For my shortbread, use three-quarters of a cup of butter (or corn oil margarine, as I did), one-third of a cup of sugar, and one-and-one-half-cups flour (I use whole wheat graham flour because it makes me snootier). I'm putting some bonus cinnamon in this batch, because I think it will taste good. Make sure you have a nice bowl and wooden spoon at the ready.


Put your butter/margarine into the bowl. Stab at it with your wooden spoon.


Pour the sugar over the butter. Sometimes it can be fun to pretend the sugar is snowing down on the butter village, but don't go overboard.


Put the cinnamon in the bowl, if you're using cinnamon. You might have to shake the spoon to make it fall out, thus shaking the camera. Watch out for that. I ended up using about three-quarters of a tablespoon. I don't know yet if that will be enough or too much.


Pour the flour in. Some people say you should put a portion of the flour in, mix the ingredients, and then put the rest of the flour in. I, however. . .


. . . prefer to dump it all in at once.


The wooden spoon was just for show (and margarine stabbing). I use my hands to mix shortbread, and my reasoning is two-fold. One: I don't think using a hand beater would be very easy. It's a fairly dry dough. Two: My sink isn't draining very well, so the less dirty utensils, the better.


Pour the dough into your square 8X8 pan. Did I forget to mention the pan? Make sure you have one of those. You're supposed to butter it, but I forgot to. I don't think it will matter, seeing how much margarine is in this stuff. The dough looks like dog food, but it's much dryer. Imagine if you took some butter and flour and sugar and mixed it all together. It's a lot like that.


Press the dough into the pan. This makes it look less like dog food. Unfortunately, this picture makes my wrists look fat. But that's neither here nor there.


Put the pan in the preheated oven. I'm not really sure how long I usually bake this for. Twenty-five or thirty minutes, maybe. It's hard to tell when it's done, because it'll be squishy until it cools. Just go with your best guess.


When you're satisfied with its done-ness, take it out of the oven, and cut it into squares while it's still warm. Math majors will probably want to measure the sides and mark off equal distances; English majors should feel free to just eyeball it and get it right anyway.


When your shortbread has cooled off a little, take it out of the pan and arrange it in an attractive fashion on a small plate. Try not to eat it all in one sitting -- that's a stick and a half of margarine there, my friend.


Now that I've tried some of this batch, I'd suggest using half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour. A cup and a half of whole wheat flour is just a little TOO snooty! The cinnamon is good, though. Enjoy!

posted by Anna Torborg at 08:06 AM |