Sunday Recipe: Celia Wakefield's Customizable Shortbread Cookies

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's Labor Day weekend, which means, perhaps, bringing a little something along to a cookout. And of course, it marks the beginning of the fall season: everything starting back up at church, resuming your book club or your volunteer group, getting together with friends after a summer spent enjoying the outdoors (New England and the PNW) or hiding from the heat and fire-ash (everybody else.) What do you need to bring in hand to all these events? How about some delicious cookies made from Celia Wakefield's recipe?

 

 

Good morning Reds and readers, friends all, I hope you're having a great Bouchercon and remember if all goes well, ALL the Reds and me too will be at New England Crime Bake. It will be my first mystery con and I look to you to take care of me as I know Julia will be very busy. 

What have I been cooking? I’ve been very jealous of Edith’s tomato crop as I can’t grow anything living as we live in the woods so I am dependent on my local farm stand and I do love tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. I can’t get enough of them at this time of the year and hope the good weather will stretch into September so we can continue to gorge ourselves. Just in case you’re thinking not another tomato recipe, wrong! It was almost a recipe with tomatoes in it but I’ll keep it for another time.

 

Today it’s shortbread, and for those of you with good memories you’re thinking, well she did that back in 2020, not to mention the deconstructed strawberry shortbread summer dessert. But, I’ve been experimenting. Yes, I got brave and like Star Trek went boldly with my baking. 

 

I’m sure many of you know the trouble with a successful dish is that the family and friends want it forever. For example if I ask Victor what would he like for dinner, he’ll reply, ‘A baked potato’. He loves a potato baked well, cut in half and the insides scraped out, mashed, mixed with cheeses, maybe some creme fraiche or feta, a little olive oil or butter or both, s&p, piled back into the shells, anointed well with grated cheese and run under the broiler till a suntan appears on top. So simple, so delicious, so tired of making it.

And I got tired of making shortbread in 2020 when I wasn’t out and about hunting down brands. I tried so many recipes and found nothing really was what I wanted. The pandemic dialed down enough to allow us to go shopping, well masked of course, and I found that Whole Foods had its own brand of shortbread cookies, less expensive than Walkers, of course not as good, but in life we sometimes have to make sacrifices. Also far too sweet, but Victor liked them. Then came the great Global supply chain crisis and again shop shelves were empty or unavailable and still are in some locations. 

Last Christmas I asked for Paul Hollywood’s new book, BAKE. You might ask why, knowing my feelings on baking and whether I’m a star? Not! But who can resist those eyes? And I thought if anyone knew how to make a successful shortbread it was Paul so back into the kitchen I went. Followed his directions, religiously. Mixed carefully, folded by hand gently and was left with a pile of dry crumbs on my parchment paper. I wrapped it all up and bunged it into the fridge while I considered what I might say to Paul should I run across him at Whole Foods. 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of days went by. Finally I was ready for a little research. I dug out three books for help - Mark Bittman’s Baking Book (a gift 2 years ago,) BAKE, and my Readers Digest book on English cooking must have the answer. The recipes were very similar; the only real difference was that Bittman added an egg yolk. So I got out the dough crumbs, threw them into my Ninja bowl with the big scary blade, added an egg, yes a whole egg, and turned it on. Instantly I had a workable dough. Rolled between two sheets of parchment paper, chilled, cut and baked - Success was mine.

Having baked a few batches since then, here’s my recipe and method for Hacked Shortbread. Now part of following your own baking bliss is adding different flavors. I love lemon. I have also added ginger or cardamon spices to my doughs. I think cinnamon would be lovely too around the holidays. Then the tops can be decorated with pieces of crystallized ginger or other dried fruits. I have sprinkled colored sugars over the warm cookies or even a dusting of confectioners sugar would be pretty. This is no family recipe with traditions, make it your own and send me a photo.

 

 

 

 

Assemble ingredients: 

2 sticks softish butter cut into chunks 

2 Cups Flour 

1/2C + 1 Tblsp sugar (I use cane sugar but brown sugar would be interesting too) 

3/4 C cornstarch

Pinch salt 

Food Processor

There it is: five ingredients and now you add the flavor. I chose lemon using a hack going back to my British Butler days when I made cold lemon soufflé by the bucket.

METHOD:  

• Carefully peel strips of the lemon without added the white pith and chop into smaller pieces. Place them in the food processor together with the sugar and pulse until chopped together. It will smell lovely.

   

• Add the butter and pulse to cream with the sugar and lemon. 

   

• Add half the flour and all the cornstarch and pulse to combine. 

   

• Add the remainder of the flour, the salt and half the squeezed lemon (Approximately 1 Tblsp), pulse to mix together. If the dough looks dry add a little more lemon juice and pulse again briefly.

   

• Turn the dough out on to a sheet of parchment, quickly gather into a ball and top with a second sheet of parchment. 

   

• My rolling pin* has measuring rings of different thicknesses which give me an even roll over the entire piece of dough and working between two sheets of parchment means no need for extra flour and less direct handling of the dough.

   

• This is the first roll so the dough doesn’t need to be as thin as in the final one. 

   

• Roll to incorporate all the ingredients then wrap the parchment around the dough, place in a plastic bag and refrigerate. I like to leave the dough for several hours or overnight. 

   

• When ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge and allow to soften a little before rolling and cutting. I cut mine into cookies. See video, below.

   

• Cut out the cookies and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Place baking sheet in fridge to cool down. 

   

• Gather and wrap dough scraps and refrigerate for a second bake. 

   

• When you are ready to bake set oven to 325F and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The cookies should be pale with a light sunburn around the edges. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.

   

   

  In response to questions about when or whether to add an egg: So either 

  1 Tblsp.lemon juice or other juice (how would pomegranate go I wonder) 

  OR an egg. Not both, though I don't think it would affect the flavor. If you 

  chose to add the grated lemon and then some lemon essence, you might 

  need the egg yolk. This is where the magic and trust comes in. When is 

  enough liquid enough to bind the mix but not overwhelm it. - If I chose to 

  add an egg I would separate it and start with the yolk and see how the dough 

  felt. Not good if it's too wet.  

*.  My rolling pin came from Food52, but I just checked Amazon and they have a plethora of choices. 

THE HAND MADE'S TAIL

RHYS BOWEN: Hear Ye! Hear ye! Starting with a Sunday shout-out for Debs! her book, Garden of Lamentations made Carole Barrowman's top ten list. We are all so thrilled!

https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2017/12/14/best-books-2017-carole-e-barrowmans-picks/940814001/

RHYS:  We have an olive tree in the garden and this year we had a bumper crop of olives. "I know," I said. "We can make our own olive oil."

So I went on YouTube for videos on making olive oil. (there are video how-tos on everything these days, aren't there?). And I watched several videos. First one picks the olives. In Italy they place big sheets around the tree then they bang the trunks with sticks and shake the branches to knock down the olives. This wouldn't work for me as mine is on a steep bit of hillside.
Then you pit the olives--all three million, six hundred thousand of them.
At some point you have to steep them in lye or brine or some kind of solution so they are no longer poisonous--yeah, right.
Then you put them in a mortar and smoosh them into a paste.
Then you hang them in a cheese cloth with a basin underneath and leave them until liquid has collected in the basin. (several days)
Then you skim off the clear oil from the top of the icky, sludgy liquid and voila:
You have ONE CUP of olive oil!

Actually I have a Trader Joe's nearby and I can buy good Italian olive oil for $7.99. Enough to last me a month. So olive oil making will not be added to my skills this year.

The problem with do-it-yourself or make-it-yourself is that things take too long. When my kids were small I made stuffed toys and doll clothes and puppets, and frankly I could buy much better ones for the same price. But it was the love that counted, right?

One Christmas we decided that the holiday was too commercial and we'd all make hand-made gifts. On Christmas morning we exchanged candles and beaded jewelry and pillows and scarves and we said how lovely they were and thanked everyone. But the kids said, "Is that it? I get a scarf for Christmas?"
"And a wooden toy," we added. "The holiday shouldn't be all about gifts."
Small faces fell.
Then I relented. I darted into the bedroom. "I did buy a few gifts," I confessed. "Just in case."
Everyone else darted into their bedrooms. "So did we," they said.
But you know what? I still use the scarf and the pillows and the candles years later and every time I do I'm reminded of the person who made them for me!

More recently my daughter Clare pointed out that it was wasteful and polluting to use wrapping paper. So she made bright cloth bags for all the gifts. They looked nice the first year. The second year a bit more crumpled and frankly there was no fun in untying a cloth bag. At least not as much fun as ripping open paper. So I'm afraid we're still going to waste and pollute. (although I do put everything I can into bags and boxes that can be reused).

So I'm afraid it will be a non-crafty Christmas this year. The children and grandchildren are way too busy to sit down and make things. And I don't need any more candles or pillows or even scarves. I'd make home-made fudge but it would have to be lactose-free, sugar free and gluten-free for various family members, which sort of loses the point, doesn't it?

The only things I still am commanded to make are the mince pies and sausage rolls of my British heritage. I don't make my own Christmas pudding (I buy one for John and me). We don't really eat that many cookies. So it looks like a labor-free holiday ahead, which suits me just fine.

How about you? Have you ever made holiday gifts? And what else do you make?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I am the anti-Crafts, so I don't have a good record with home made gifts. I've made cookies and fruit bread as hostess gifts, of course, but I'm afraid nothing as good as my college roommate, who for many years made her own faux-Kahlua. Delicious!

My grandmother Greuling, who lived through the Great Depression, was the queen of homemade gifts. Every year, she would give each of her grandchildren - all eighteen of us! - hand-knit mittens and scarves. I have some that are over forty years old and still in good shape. She would start in January and knit all year long.

I think she may have done more elaborate projects for her five children, although I have to confess I wasn't paying attention to boring old brown-up gifts when I was a kid. She also hand-crocheted an afghan for each of us for a high school graduation gift. Mine is in the family room right now! Thanks, Grandma!

On Christmas sweets

JAN BROGAN: This is a repost of my favorite of our Christmas Candy blogs: The years may pass, but the recipes stay the same.

JAN: Every Christmas, I make home-made candy and give it to friends and neighbors. I start with caramels. Do not do this. It's completely insane. Caramels TAKE FOREVER. You actually have to stand at the stove about an hour, slowly stirring hot sugary liquid, remembering not to use your finger to wipe the side of the pot or sneak a taste. You will burn. I've got scars.

Not only that, but if you screw up and let the caramel cook too long, your Christmas gift to the neigbors will break their teeth.

And do they really need all those extra holiday calories anyway? I always wonder.

But maybe because cookies and cakes seem like so much unnecessary flour -- when anyone really needs is the straight sugar and chocolate, I stick with candies. And holiday rituals in our house are set in stone. My daughter, who loves rituals, makes the caramel part less onerous by putting on the holiday CD and keeping me company while I embark on the marathon stir. She also buys the cute little candy boxes at A.C. Moore and handles all the necessary ribbon tying.

But forget about caramels. If you go in for making Christmas candies, you want my English toffee recipe.Actually, it's my Aunt Clare's Engish toffee recipe -- she's the one who got me started on this candy making business. (although even she was not insane enough to do caramels)

It takes about fifteen minutes, and its absolutely delicious. Just be careful about the pan

Aunt Clare's English Toffee recipe

24 unsalted saltines1 cup butter1 cup packed light brown sugar1/2 tsp. vanilla6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 13 by 19 inch pan (or thereabouts) and arrange saltines right side up in a single layer. On stovetop, melt butter and brown sugar. Bring to boil, boil for three minutes, stir at least twice.Remove from heat, add vanilla and pour over the saltines. Spread evenly with a spatula. Bake five minutes. Remove from oven, add chocolate chips, spread as they melt.Let cool ten minutes on a rack. Remove and cut in triangles. BEWARE: If you let the toffee cool too long, it can stick to the pan and be difficult to remove. If that happens, put the pan in a larger pan filled 1/4 inch with hot water and it will loosen the candy on the bottom. Don't overfill.Enjoy!

HANK: Ah, you've been literally burned by candy? When the food fights back, you've gotta watch it. I battled our pop-up timer on this year's turkey (I won. Eventually). And I'm planning a ranting letter to a certain food editor about a fabulous recipe in the paper that was billed as "easy" which took me THREE HOURS on Thanksgiving eve and used every pan in my kitchen. It was, indeed, delicious. But regular sweet potatoes might have been just as good. And take only 15 minutes. (If you want the recipe, just ask. I'll post it. But I'd advise--run away run away.)

Still, family and friends. It makes going all out worth it. And Jan, you think of Aunt Clare every time you make the toffee. That's what its all about.

ROBERTA: I was thinking the same thing Hank. My mother was not much of a cook. She didn't like it and yet she didn't want anyone in the kitchen helping either. She cooked 50's style--everything overdone except for the chow mein out of a can. But when it came to Christmas cookies, she became a machine. We had one of those little screw top presses where you could change the disk so different shapes would be squeezed out--wreaths, candy canes, mini-Christmas trees, etc. And she dyed the dough different colors. Then we put on pounds and pounds of glitter and those teeth-cracking silver balls.

All that to say, it's neat that your daughter's into this ritual Jan--I'm sure she'll always remember it!

RO: All that unnecessary flour? I'm crushed. I'm more like Roberta's mom...a cookie machine. I didn't do it this year (some book thing keeps interrupting me..) but most years I start making my cookie dough in November. Then I pop something like I, Claudius or The Sopranos into the dvd player (for 10 hours of straight video)and make cookies from morning until nighttime - while reciting favorite lines. I've never used the little silver balls though, can you really eat them?

HALLIE: Here it's not a cookie Christmas -- it's dark chocolate covered orange rind. It's completely exhausting and completely worth the effort. I mean, the stuff costs a fortune and what you can make yourself tastes better...provided you've got a half day to kill. Step 1: go to that candy-making Zen place. It's the same as the pate-making and bread-making Zen place. Then, peel lots of oranges, boil the peels, scrap away the white part so it's just the 'zest,' cut in strips, simmer zest strips in sugar(enter candy thermoneter), cool, dip one end of each piece in melted dark chocolate and the other end in sugar (keeps them from all sticking together). Yum.

JAN: Yes, my mother, actually a good cook, made no Christmas candies or cookies, established no holiday rituals, and put up a fake tree. To compensate, I went with the caramels....an insanity, I lovingly pass on to my daughter.