Scottish Shortbread

I told you, I looove caramel. And chocolate. And butter. That's all these next cookies are.

When I was in Brighton, England for my foreign exchange I kept seeing all these signs for shortbread around. I've never been a solely-shortbread kind of person. I like mine flavoured or scented, or with something, but all that was ever written was shortbread. Finally, toward the end of my stay, a visiting friend bought some on a whim and shared it with me. It was AMAZING. It was rich, buttery, sweet, salty, crumbly, melty, and all at once. Unfolding the simple ingredients in my mouth, sorting them out, I determined this to be the finest offering of a baked good the UK could offer me. I got boxes of them before I left, packed my small carry-on with them for the trip home. They were good.

I got home, though, and nothing. A dry spell of deliciousness! I knew I had to go to the internet to find what I was looking for.

Soon I came across the information that what the Brits in Brighton were calling shortbread was actually short for Scottish Shortbread. It was regular shortbread layered with thick caramel and milk chocolate on the top. I hunted down a score of recipes and tried more than a handful until I found one that was reminiscent of that first taste I had. That's what I present to you now, with my helpful hints alongside it because it can be a bit dangerous – boiling molten lava-like caramel, melting chocolate… it's kind of full of unpleasant tasks, but it is so worth it.

I made these for a Christmas party this year at my parents' place and they were devoured in no time at all, so fast that I had to make another double-batch Christmas night for the Boxing Day party with my friends the next morning. Be careful, though, they're overindulgence in a 1-inch square (it's saving grace!) and they're very filling.

If you're not a caramel fan, I apologise, I was asked to post this recipe next. I'll be packing the caramel recipes away for a while and will be moving on to something else just as tasty soon!





Scottish Shortbread

Ingredients:2/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. Combine the first group of ingredients in a medium bowl – the 2/3 cup butter, the 1/4 cup white sugar, and the 1 1/4 cups flour with a fork. It should be light and crumbly, even throughought. The softer your butter is for this step, the better the shortbread will come out, texture-wise.
   
3. Press this mixture into an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan. I prefer disposeable because it makes for easiest removal, and glass after that. You really don't want to have to use non-stick spray on metal here.
   
4. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.
   
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Turn off the oven, you're done with that part.
   
6. In a medium saucepan, combine the next set of ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, 2 tablspoons light corn syrup, and 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk over medium-high heat and bring to a boil with constant, vigilant stirring. If you leave this mixture for more than a few seconds without agitating it it can scorch, brulee, and other unpleasant things that you just don't want. I suggest using a wooden spoon here, too, because it doesn't distribute heat differently through the mixture like a metal spoon could, plus it's easier to clean. Continue to boil the mixture for 5 minutes from the point when it just begins to boil.
   
7. Remove from the heat and vigorously stir the caramel mixture for an additional 3 minutes.
   
8. Pour the caramel mixture over the baked shortbread and allow it to cool until it begins to firm.
   
9. Once the caramel and shortbread have cooled move to the last ingredient, the milk chocolate chips. I suggest getting a high quality brand here because the chocolate is extremely important to this recipe. It needs to be chocolate you'd be willing to eat without anything else, not waxy or mockolate or something you'd throw into a three year olds' Easter basket – this needs to be indulgent. Anyway, follow the instructions from the Salted Caramel Cookies -- melt the bag of chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Try 1 minute, stir. If it still needs more heat to melt, add 20 seconds, stir again. Keep adding 20-second increments until the chocolate is still thick but melted. It shouldn't be lumpy or fudgy at all, it should be smooth and just the point of having been solid.
   
10. Pour the chocolate over the caramel layer of the shortbread pan and chill in a refigerator for a bit but not so long that the chocolate will crack when you cut it.
    
11. Tradition dictates that these squares ought to be cut into 1-inch squares or so because they're so rich. Cut them and store them in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Other Mother Cookies

My first Gaiman-inspired cookie, and just in time for the premiere of the feature film!

I just read Coraline this past autumn while I was on my study abroad for university in the UK. I read it in the plane as I went to meet my friend who lives in Munich and I couldn't put it down.

It's a delightfully twisted book. I know if I had been a kid when it came out I would have loved it, because as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed it; it's Gaiman's usual dark, sharp wit and tells a story gentle enough for kids to read it, like it, and get something from it. Perfect.

This Friday, 6 February, the film version of Coraline will be hitting the theatres in the US. I am so excited. It looks amazing.



I had to make a cookie in the excitement and tried to think of something iconic. What better than a button?

This cookie is named after Coraline's Other Mother. It's meant to be a sweet, comforting cookie… with a bite. It's anise seed, a flavour reminiscent of black liquorice, a flavour people either love or hate. The clove is smoky and tangy, a spice that brings comfort to upset tummies and carries a bit of a shock to a biscuit. Together, they make a strongly scented cookie, one that's like a lot of spice cookies, but something's not quite the same… And pressed into a big button, these Other Mother cookies are just like her -- familiar, only not.




Other Mother Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground anise seed

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp anise oil (picked up from a local Italian delicatessen)
1 egg
1 cup fine sugar
1 cup butter

black icing dye (mine was a gel-like consistency)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, ground cloves, and ground anise seed in a medium bowl.
   
3. Cream the butter and sugar. Add egg, anise oil, and vanilla. Beat well.
   
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients.
   
5. Work in the black icing dye. I ended up using approximately 1/2 teaspoon but I didn't keep track much -- add more if it's not dark enough. You want the dough black.
   
6. Divide the dough into a few sections so it will be easier to work with. Roll out one section to approximately 1/4 inch thick, or a bit thicker, onto a lightly floured surface.
   
7. Using a large circular cookie cutter, cut as many circles of dough as you can, then place them on your baking sheet, not too close to one another. Press a smaller circular cutter into the dough, but do not go all the way through -- you only want to make an impression that will last through baking. Poke four holes into the center with a chopstick or skewer, all the way through the dough.
   
8. Bake for 9 minutes.

Enjoy!