Sunshine Shortbread

I must begin by declaring, ”I’ve been in a shortbread kind of mood”.  It’s something I come back to again and again when I get that craving for something rich, dreamy, buttery and deceptively easy to make.  Some weeks are like that, the kind where you need an extra stick of butter or two (or four) to help get you through…especially with these long, cold and (occasionally sleepless) winter nights.

The idea of “sunshine” came about for obvious reasons.  I’m happy to report we had a few days with the golden orb shining accompanied by moderate temperatures, enough to finally melt the interminable snow, which has haunted the northeast for the past two months.  My craving to get back outdoors has been building in tandem with my craving for the rich and fatty goodness contained in the tiniest morsel of good shortbread. 

I finally returned to work this week from my two month “vacation”.  It was hard to leave Brian and Siena, though I know it’s a normal part of being a parent…the part where we are required to keep a roof over the aforementioned child’s head.  Going back to work was both difficult and somehow strangely simple at the same time.  The simple part is that it’s just work, a creative job I enjoy, but nothing nearly as rigorous or time consuming as taking care of a teeny-tiny person around the clock.  And I think the weirdest part of all was it didn’t seem like I'd ever left.  I attribute this to the fact that the past two months of my life have been unlike any other two months I’ve ever known.  The sudden, life-altering occurrence of a child being born changed everything instantaneously, and other than that horrible opposite end of the spectrum (death) I can think of no other happening in life with such a gravity and displacing force.

Stepping back into my role at work was easy, a known entity, unlike the little person living at our house.  Siena is both familiar and still a stranger.  Both she and her needs change every day and meeting those needs are a glorious challenge.  My profession is creative and I do quite a bit of problem solving, but those problems generally fall into familiar areas that I have been trained to deal with over “X” number of years.  Siena is only seven weeks old and it’s seemingly a whole new ballgame everyday. 

There is a satisfaction that comes with problem solving for both babies and commercials and also in the realm of baked goods.  As I mentioned, I was craving shortbread, but I was also in a mood to create.  I love to read recipes and precisely execute them, but I feel like I have a new goal lately:  making them my own.  I suppose that’s what any good cook or baker does; taking tried and true recipes and turning them on their ear in some way.  A little more of “this” and a little less of “that”, all the while spinning new flavor profiles, creating unexpected textures and thrilling at the chance of making something even better than what you started with.

It was this frame of mind that took me into the first of two shortbread forays this past week.  My beloved Martha Stewart has what I have always thought to be the ultimate shortbread recipe in her Baking Handbook (my bible of sorts).  The recipe is quite simple with only a few ingredients, one of the beauties of shortbread in my opinion.  Basically you put them all in a mixer, spread them out in the pan, chill and bake for a small amount of time.  What could be simpler?  The answer is “nothing”, but I wasn’t in the mood for simple, I was in the mood to play around and experiment. 

First off, I was interested in additional flavor combinations.  Martha’s basic shortbread has no flavorings to speak of outside of the sugar, butter, flour and salt.  This is not something I’m sneering at, for I love it dearly, but I’m still in that citrus state of mind and wanted to see what I could do (if anything) to elevate the recipe.  Here is Martha’s recipe for Shortbread Fingers.  My version goes something like this:

Marty’s Citrus Thyme Shortcakes (A variation of Shortbread Fingers)

Ingredients:

2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4-cup grapefruit juice

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2-teaspoon salt

1/2-teaspoon baking powder

Zest of 2 grapefruit

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1-cup confectioners’ sugar

Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Butter a 9x13 inch rimmed baking sheet and line with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on long sides.  Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, zest and thyme in a small bowl; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy on medium speed, 5 minutes.  Add confectioners’ sugar; continue to beat until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add grapefruit juice; beat just until incorporated.  Add flour mixture, and beat on low speed, scraping down sides occasionally, until just incorporated.  (It should have the consistency of soft cookie dough.)

Using a small offset spatula, evenly spread dough in prepared baking sheet.  Chill in the freezer or refrigerator until dough is firm, about 20 minutes.

Prick dough all over with a fork.  Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until shortcake is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar.  While still hot, use a large knife to cut shortcakes into desired shapes.  Cool completely in the pan.  Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

I’m not sure what spurned my interest in mixing the citrus and herbs.  I love the addition of rosemary to Christmas butter cookies I make each December, lavender sneaks around as infusions with cream in several summer desserts I can think of and many times a dish for something as drab as chicken will get spiced up not only with herbs but citrus juices as well.  It stands to reason that these flavors can stand up together in a less traditional format such as a dessert…and they did.

The result of my test was less like shortbread and more like shortcake.  Adding the baking powder, grapefruit juice and cream cheese gave these bars a bit of height, a crumb if you will and some moisture not typically found in a light, crisp shortbread.  But the thyme and grapefruit were heavenly.  These two are definitely going to be best friends in the dessert world for me from here on out, and I daresay adding the zest of 2 grapefruits and a tablespoon of thyme to any cake or cookie batter would seriously bring it to the next level.  My recipe would be good with summer berries and a drizzling of heavy cream, no doubt about that, and I’m proud of myself for going out on a limb with the limited time I have.  With a few tweaks, I’m sure the cakes could become more balanced and a little lighter on the palette, but no one at work seemed to have a problem eating them with their morning coffee.  But if it’s tried and true shortbread you are looking for, then read on my friends.

Sunshine…yes, that’s what I wanted and that’s what I got: a golden, orange disk of deliciousness radiating the love of my kitchen.  Saturday was that occasional March day that comes along to tease you.  It teases with 60-degree weather and is enough to drive anyone into the haze of pre-spring fever.  Stepping out into the backyard without a coat on for the first time in months is sheer bliss.  Feeling the warmth on your face and the skin on your arms is a refreshing homecoming.   Inspecting the leaf-strewn garden, somewhat muddy and still frozen about an inch under the soil is akin to entering a candy store for this light starved caveman. 

After months of not entering my sacred, therapeutic shrine (otherwise known as the backyard) I felt antsy.  The question of what survived the incredibly long and ongoing winter was plaguing me.  I suppose this is the question all gardeners ask at this time of the year and the honest answer is it’s too early to tell.  But oh what joy!!!  I found the daffodils and tulips were starting to sprout.  I’d noticed a few along the Ossining Main St. sidewalk earlier in the week, inhabiting the small squares of soil underneath the ginkgo trees.  I thought maybe the store owners hadn’t planted them deep enough because it seemed too early, but it made me happy just the same.  Finding them in my own garden sent me over the moon! 

With the sun shining down I did a little light, outdoor house keeping.  I picked up a few leaves, did a cursory sweep of the flagstone patio and in accordance with my Martha Stewart calendar knew it was also the moment to prune fruit trees (while they are still dormant).  We only have one, a dwarf golden delicious apple, so it wasn’t a terribly difficult task.  Happily, our next-door neighbors also have a couple of apple trees so we are able to get some pollination action going on.  The more I walked around and picked up, the more green tops of sprouting daffodils called out to me with their lusty contrast to all the drab brown everywhere else…and that’s when I knew, I wanted to pay homage to this moment.  Thus, Sunshine Shortbread was born.

Returning to the kitchen in the afternoon (and while Siena was taking a nap), I noticed within the pages of my new best friend and cookbook companion, Baked Explorations:  Classic American Desserts Reinvented, there was a recipe for a traditional shortbread, one made with slightly different ingredients than I had used before.  This one calls not only for egg yolks, but also 10x sugar and rice flour.  But the coup de gras was the addition of fleur de sel.  If you have read this blog for any amount of time you know how I love the pairing of sweet and salty.  The harmony between sugar and salt is strangely unparalleled and this recipe puts it right out there, front and center.

Classic Shortbread with Fleur de Sel (From Baked Explorations)

Ingredients:

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, cool but not cold

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar, or 1-cup confectioners’ sugar

1/2-teaspoon salt

3 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2-cup rice flour

2 egg yolks

1-tablespoon fleur de sel

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth.  Add the sugar and salt and beat again just until incorporated, about 2 minutes.  In two additions, using a wooden spoon or the absolute lowest speed on your mixer, stir in 3 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour and all the rice flour, just until incorporated.  Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and stir just until combined.  If the dough looks too wet, fold in the remaining 2 tablespoons flour.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until it is uniform.  Do not overwork it.  Divide the dough into eight equal balls, then shape them into disks, wrap them in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour.  Working with one piece of chilled dough at a time while leaving the others in the refrigerator, roll a disk into a slightly less than 1/2-inch round.  Cut the round into wedges like a pizza. 

Prick the top of the shortbread with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a bit of fleur de sel over the surface.  Transfer the cookies to a prepared baking sheet.  Bake the shortbread for 17 to 22 minutes, or until they just begin to brown.

Set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before transferring the shortbreads to the rack to cool completely.

Shortbread will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 5 days.

Not only are the ingredients different, but also the baking process itself.  The recipe asks you to divide the dough in two, make disks and then chill them in the fridge for an hour.  After that you make 8 smaller balls of dough, roll them out like you would a crust, then cut them into wedges before baking.  This is where my creative streak took over once more.  Going with the idea of sunshine, I decided I wanted to make two large, traditional pans of shortbread instead of the 8. 

First off, I wanted the sunshine to be orange, makes sense, right?  I added quite a bit of yellow food coloring and a couple drops of red (red food coloring is stronger than yellow, so watch out) to achieve the desired result.  I also added the zest of one orange to make the shortbread taste more like it looked.  Both the zest and colors were incorporated along with the egg yolks, before the flour mixture goes in.  This tinting process will work for any cookie or cake batter.  Second, I had on hand both a 9-inch and a 10-inch tart ring.  Instead of dividing the dough and chilling the disks in plastic wrap, I divided the dough and used my fingertips to spread it into the rings on parchment lined baking sheets.  I then put the pans in the refrigerator for an hour before pricking them all over with a fork and baking at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.  In this instance they truly did come out golden and sunny, and to gild the lily I painted the top with gold luster dust for added sparkle.

The flavor:  ridiculous…and I mean that in the best possible use of the word.  The texture is so very light and buttery with the topping of fleur de sel cuddling up like a baby blankie to the super-fine sugar.  If I could wear shortbread as a winter coat, this would be my parka.  If you don’t bake anything else for a very long while, it must, must, must be this recipe you try.  You will not be disappointed either doing it with my method or the one recommended by the Baked guys.

As for the finishing touches, one can’t have sunshine without something for it to fall upon.  In a similar fashion to the flower cake I made around this time last year, once you start to assemble the sunshine (I laughingly say assemble because it requires so little work) you’ll see how large it is.  None of my 12-inch cake platters could hold it.  Therefore I resorted to my full sheet pan, the only one I own, and the only pan that won’t actually fit into my oven.  This is large enough for all those bigger creative projects you find yourself in. 

Having laid out the sun I was inspired by my brief respite in the garden and began to scour the fridge for some plants.  We had scallions and parsley on hand which seemed to pair perfectly as new sprouts.  There were also broccoli and Brussels sprouts which I could also see making lovely little plantings.  I found some whole-wheat flour and cocoa powder in the pantry making the perfect dark soil for the plants to “shoot” out of.  Lastly, I needed some atmospherics for the sky, but we had recently run out of spray-can whip cream…that’s right, I said it…say what you will but strange things find their way into your fridge when you are stress eating and taking care of a newborn.   Brian suggested making clouds out of parchment paper and I think they turned out rather cute.

With more time (and planning) it would be fun to look for green dessert components to use as the plants.  Some time in a candy store might reveal all sorts of treasures I’ve never thought of.  But necessity breeds invention and a sudden inspiration from the garden required swift action. 

Responding to creative impulses in the world of baked goods can be somewhat challenging at the offset, but with an open mind and a willingness to learn great things are possible.  For me, the Sunshine Shortbread and the experimentation with the Grapefruit Thyme Shortcakes were a great jumping off point, not to mention fun to do.  Plus, both of these recipes have very few ingredients, so if it doesn’t necessarily work out the first round it’s not an incredibly expensive loss. 

Being creative is what I love whether it’s at a work setting, in the kitchen or with learning what works (and doesn’t work) for our daughter.  I think being a parent is going to require a lot of creativity on my part.  Siena wants to learn things about the world and Brian and I are the ones to introduce the world to her.  Hopefully this introduction is from a loving and artistic background that will someday inspire her to take chances and create something (a whole world) that she loves.  Maybe she’ll even want to make shortbread.  A dad can dream.  It’s just who I am.