TWD: Hungarian Shortbread

Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Gale Gand


                                     Hungarian Shortbread

Our Tuesdays with Dorie hosts this week are Lynette of 1smallkitchen and Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler…. Visit their blogs for the recipe and their take on this creation.

Separate your egg whites into individual dishes

then freeze. Once frozen warm bowls to loosen

 and transfer to a Ziplock bag to use later.

Light and fluffy.

With five bags of cranberries in my freezer I

decided to make cranberry jam rather than the

rhubarb jam called for in the recipe.

I rolled the dough thin enough to fit in the feed tube

 of a food processor as suggested by this fellow baker.

First layer of grated dough.

I pre-baked the first layer just until it started

to change in color before adding the filling.

I was hoping to have some leftover

jam for toast it was so good.

Bwahaaha...

The first piece cut after a few

 hours of cooling fell apart.

By the next day they held together beautifully.

The cranberry jam had wonderful flavor

before baking. After baking it seemed to

lose its tartness.

I consumed more of these then I wanted to trying to determine if I liked them. The answer was right there on my tastebuds. If I did like them there would be no question and I could have stopped at the first piece (or not.) I kept sampling over and over again trying to find the intense flavor I so imagined these would have and unfortunately it was not found in these bars.

The shortbread turned out softer than I was expecting and my filling did not pack much of a punch. The flavor of the jam really did not come through at all now that I think about it. These I find are a bit on the bland side. (Update: I took the leftovers to our girls-night. Everyone loved them - except me.)

I'm thinking I should change my success meter from numbers to "Is it worth the fat and calories?"

Success meter (1-3): 1/No



My version did not impress me but reading other bakers comments they were happy with their outcome. So don't just take my word on this recipe, try it out for yourself by going to our host's sites mentioned at the beginning of this post to obtain the recipe or you can purchase Baking with Julia at your local independent bookseller or on-line.

On another note I once again have been bestowed upon with another blogger award! This one is from Sabine of Berry Lovely. Thank you Sabine. I am deeply touched by your generous gift. Sabine has a beautiful blog and is an amazing photographer. Take the time to check her site out - her photos are visually captivating.

The Cookie Tin

Samoa Bark
from bakersroyale.com

If you are not a fan of the Girl Scout Samoa cookie, read no further for these are reminiscent of my favorite GS cookie.

My caramel did not turn out the way I think it should have: One- it was gritty looking though it had good flavor. Maybe the sugar was not dissolved completely. Two- It never hardened. Maybe there was a mistake in the ratios; I'll have to do some research. I did substitute (something I usually do not do on a first run) half & half for the heavy cream for that is what I had on hand and did not want to make a run to the store.

Aside from the caramel mishap, this is an easy, fun and really tasty treat that can be made anytime you have a craving for those Samoa cookies that are unavailable but once a year.

Success meter (1-3): 2



Sablés
from Baking by Dorie Greenspan

These are not only awesome but super easy!

When will I ever learn what I recommend to others: always read your recipes thoroughly before-hand. I was hoping to get more done today. However this recipe calls for your eggs and butter to be at room temperature (which is the norm for baking unless otherwise noted). No big deal... maybe half hour tops to wait. Reading further - dough needs to chill at least three hours - great... already it is four o'clock.

This is one of those cookie doughs you want to handle little as possible so when you bite into the cookie it will be melt-in-your-mouth goodness. I had a new cookie cutter that I was anxious to use so I rolled the dough into a log as instructed, cut it into just under 1/2-inch thick then used a cookie cutter to make a pretty shape. Not only do I recommend not using a cookie cutter for the above reason, but they do not hold their definitive shape very well. After trying both shapes I really liked the plain sliced cookie for it seemed to have a better texture and are less time consuming to make.

Success meter (1-3): 3


Hastskor
Recipe from my friend Christine

The name hastskor translates to horseshoes, the shape of this crisp cardamom flavored cookie. While these are labor intensive to make, they are so worth it.

This has been a tradition for the cookie tin for as long as I can remember. It has to be one of the best cookies around and one of which my sister would rather fill her tin completely with and forgo all other treats. 

I was happy the cookies turned out this year for I had to make a few modifications. My Lyle's Golden Syrup (both cans) developed some sort of chemical reaction and there was a dark nastiness along the lid and rim which gave the syrup a metallic taste. The good news is, if you do not have Lyle's Golden Syrup in your area, honey works just as well. I also did not have enough all-purpose flour and had to use a bit of bread flour.

Success meter (1-3): 3

Book Eleven: Stars Desserts

by Emily Luchetti

     Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies

I just love Emily Luchetti! Her desserts are always so easy, beautiful, and delicious. I have four out of five (well six...soon to be published if not already) of her cookbooks. The only reason I do not have the fifth one is, that it is my understanding that it is a compilation of a couple of her other books. Though I am tempted, just to make the library complete!

Not only is shortbread absolutely wonderful, (who doesn't like shortbread?!) but it is something you can always make at the last minute for we all have butter, sugar, flour and salt on hand. Place one cookie in a bowl of ice cream with or without a little chocolate sauce and viola, dessert!

I really must pay more attention to what I am doing, or maybe I should not be cooking dinner, sipping wine, baking and taking photos all at the same time. I dumped the bowl of sugar into the mixer along with the butter, forgetting that I had not measured the sugar yet.  I had just thrown some sugar into a bowl for the photo. My recipe called for only ½ cup sugar and the bowl holds about 1¼ cups! I did not realize this until it was whirling away in the mixer.  So now in my freezer, I have a bag of creamed butter and sugar waiting to be turned into something delightful; maybe chocolate chip cookies. I also failed to read the part where you are supposed to freeze or refrigerate the cookies for one hour prior to baking. However this did not seem to make a difference. The cookies turned out wonderful!!

To make them a bit more special for Valentine’s Day I sandwiched these with a dollop of Nutella.

Success meter (1-3): 3

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