Hey again!
I’m back again for my second post in my weekly baking adventure. This week I made Scottish pan shortbread, the receipe I used, I was given by my Grandma.
I am not as anxous about school, though my mental state for this week is a little worse than this time last week. This is resulting from the sad news that a good family friend had passed, so that event has been weighing on me since I found out. Thankfully, as was the case last week, I put on some music, and for eth time it took to make my shortbread, I did not think of anything but what I was doing in the moment.
Making pan shortbread can be quite difficult. To make it, you must first cream a cup of caster sugar into a pound of butter, Once it is fully mixed in, you then mix in three cups of flour, minues three tbsp of flour and add three tbsp of potato starch. After it is mixed in, you take a fourth cup of flour and mix in just enough so you can remove the dough from the bowl and kneed it. You must kneed the dough for around ten minutes, or until it is smooth enough. This will be figured out after making it a few times. While kneeding the dough, the fourth cup of flour should be used to keep the dough from stickign to your hand and the counter, though it is not necessary to kneed in the whole cup. Once the ten minutes is up, or the dough is smooth enough, the dough must then be spread out by hand into an 11/15 inch cookie cheet or jelly roll pan. If you dont have a pan exactly 11/15, whatever you have closest to that size will do. This is the most difficult part, as the dough must be spread evenly across the entire pan to avoind uneven cooking. Additionally, if you push too hard on the dough, you may overwork it and cause the end product to be very overly dense. Another thing that makes this dessert difficult is that it must be in the oven for 40 minutes, anywhere from 250-300 fahrenheit, and as every oven is different, you need to figure out what temperature in that range through trial and error. After the 40 minutes, you take the shortbread out of the oven and press lightly in the centre, and it should spring back. If it does spring back, you take a knife and clut it into pieces while it’s still hot, as if it is allowed to cool down it will crumble and fall apart whe you try to cut it while cool.
The end product turned out very nice. One of the better batches that i’ve done, though there is still much room for improvment. In another 10-20 years I might be able to make it as well as my grandma could. Hopefully!
Matt, i’m sorry to hear about your loss. Navigating school work and our personal life can be really hard sometimes, and I’m glad that you have chosen an inquiry topic that helps take away from your stress. Thank you for sharing your grandma’s shortbread recipe with us, they have always been my favourite cookie and I will definitely have to try them out this holiday season! Your step-by-step photos will be incredibly useful in my attempts and I’ll have to let you try one to make sure they taste (at least somewhat) like your grandma’s recipe! Thanks again Matt, and as cliche as it sounds, our cohort will always be here if you need someone to talk to.
I’d love to try a piece when you make some!
Hi Matthew, I am so sorry for your loss. I hope that this next week will end up being better for you.
Wow! Those shortbreads look amazing! That must have taken a long time to make. I really liked that you put in a lot of pictures of the different steps, it makes it easy to follow along with. My younger sister and my mother absolutely love shortbread so I will definitely have to try and make this for them sometime. Thank you for sharing this recipe Matthew!
Hey Matt, I’m sorry to hear about your loss. I truly hope that your inquiry topic helps to relieve some stress, I’ve found that when I’m stressed baking is something I frequently turn to since it helps me to get my mind off of things while aiding me to feel like I’ve done something productive. The shortbread looks great, and i”m sure it’ll taste great too.
Hi Matt,
Sending lots of strength and support your way. It is hard being away from the people we love especially when someone passes away. I know how you are feeling as I too lost a family member at the beginning of the semester. It is not easy, but I hope you know we are all here to support you! I’m glad you have been able to use baking as a bit of a distraction and a yummy distraction if I do say so myself! Your shortbread tasted great! Shortbread is one of my favourite cookies at Christmas time, but I had never tried Scottish Shortbread. I will definitely have to give your recipe a try!