Classic Shortbread (via Martha Stewart's Cookies Cookbook)
Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt (I used fine sea salt)
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 Cup confectioner's sugar
Easy peasy:
1. Sift flour and salt in a bowl. Put butter in your stand mixer and mix on medium for 3-5 minutes, until fluffy. Gradually add in the confectioner's sugar, beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture and mix until combined.
2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with rack on the upper third
3. Using plastic wrap, press dough into a buttered 10 inch tart pan with removable bottom. (I dont own a tart pan- something on my baking wishlist, so I substituted a cheesecake pan. So mine don't have the fancy edges but it still worked) With plastic wrap on the dough, refrigerate for 20 minutes.
4. The recipe now says to cut out the center using a 2 1/4 inch cookie cutter and discard. Why on earth would you do this?!that seemed absolutely silliness to me. More cookie bits for me to eat. So I left the center in and I also cut into more than 8 pieces, because well 8 pieces would be enormous! Of course mine came out all wonky and uneven sized. But I don't care! So cut as many as you want! Then take a wooden skewer and prick holes 1/4" intervals. Again. I went all willy-nilly and poked where I wanted to! I was not feeling like following the rules.
5. Bake until golden brown and firm, about an hour. Transfer pan to a wire rack. Recut shortbread into wedges; let cool completely in pan. Cookies can be stored in airtight pan for up to two weeks.
**
They came out so awesome. I was really impressed with myself. I've never made shortbread before. Had I known it was so simple I would have been making it for years. Shortbread is one of my favorites. I love the sweet/salty combo of them. They are just perfect. They also remind me of when I was little. My grandmother would come back from her trips to Ireland and always bring my mom back classic shortbread from over there. It was so yummy.
In other news (you are all probably sick of me talking about her) but Lola had a horrible weekend. She ended up going backward and her breathing completely declined. Of course things like this always happen on the weekends immediately after the vet closes. Her and I didn't get much sleep. I was up and worried she wasn't going to make it through til Monday. There was a lot of time researching and on the computer, a lot of time rubbing her back, and a lot of time just plain being sad.
She made it to Monday, and Kevin took her in to the vet first thing. I guess He was pretty blunt with him (because she was in such rough shape) He said obviously he will do what we want and can continue giving her steroid shots but basically her immune system has completely failed at this point and that it may be best for us to let her go...
He had him give her the shot, to well..give her a another shot at life. But I can't be put through this again. If we are only going one week at a time and she is in any sort of pain, it's not worth it to us to see her suffer. Dr Mike said, "She's basically a 77 year old, little old lady, who was diagnosed with cancer...it's not good"
so... that's that. Time will tell. Until then I just continue to give her hugs and the best treatment we can.
