You know, I could almost be convinced that they look like petticoat tails (even though I have no idea what a petticoat tail looks like). Whaddya think? Shortbread is one of those things that every baker should know how to make, since it’s the basis of a wide variety of cookies and some crusts. Those […]
READ ONThe classic proportions for shortbread are 1, 2, 3: one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour. These days shortbread recipes are both sweeter and richer than that. Surprised? The below recipe, inspired by Cook’s Illustrated, boosts the sugar content by about 50% and the butter by about 25%, which is OK by […]
READ ONFor the next couple of days we’ll be talking shortbread. It’s a project that’s been on my to-do list for quite a while, though I moved it up after an urgent request for a tutorial came in last week. Shortbread is another very simple preparation, one that’s mostly taken for granted now. These days come […]
READ ONAlfajores are widely thought to be little sandwiches made of shortbread. In fact that isn’t the case. The two little disks that contain the filling most closely resemble cakes. They contain flour, butter, leavening and eggs (cooked egg yolk). They also have one other rather unusual ingredient: cornstarch (cornflour) usually in abundance. Indeed it’s not unusual to find an alfajores recipe that contains as much cornstarch as wheat flour.
READ ONHope everyone had a delightful 3-day Labor Day weekend! I returned this morning to find this very interesting question from reader Q in my box. Speaking for myself, Q, I’ve never heard a satisfactory explanation. The one you hear the most is that shortening was given that name because it “shortens gluten strands”. As a technical matter that’s true, however the problem is that terms like shortening and “shortbread” (which is high in shortening, i.e. fat) have been used for hundreds of years, well before anyone ever knew what a gluten strand was.
READ ONReader Chelsea writes: I’ve got what I hope is an interesting one for you. Yesterday I was baking a quick chocolate cake to serve as dessert. As I whisked up the batter, I could tell something was wrong: it was very, very thick, more like cookie dough than cake batter, and not the deep dark […]
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Reader Anna wrote in late last week to ask why big heat (i.e. around 500 degrees Fahrenheit) helps shortbread-type cakes like scones and American biscuits rise higher. Anna, you’ve made me a very happy blogger this Monday morning. Leavening is a fascinating, fascinating subject.
READ ONAs I mentioned below, American gingerbread is informed by at least two major gingerbread archetypes: shortbread-like English/Scottish gingerbread and crispy, cookie-like German gingerbread. Although judging from the sheer variety of gingerbread I’ve come across over the years, we’ve probably inherited several others too. This page from The Boston Cook Book demonstrates just how varied gingerbread […]
READ ONSince the evolution of gingerbread is linked inextricably to the history of ginger in Europe, let’s start there. Ginger was probably the most important spice in Medieval Europe after pepper. It was known to the Greeks, who discovered it over the course of their escapades in Persia. The Romans knew about it as well, and […]
READ ONGood question, reader Megan! The shortbread recipe calls for corn or rice flour because neither one of those contain any gluten. Not only that, their presence works to undermine the development of gluten by interrupting continuous chains of proteins. Hang on, Joe, you always say that developed gluten needs water, there’s no water in this […]
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