The way to my heart . . . Shortbread!

Do you love shortbread . . . the buttery Scottish biscuit? I do. I'm always looking for ways to perfect my shortbread baking experience. I have one tried and true recipe that I make often because it's simple. Then I found this one with chocolate as one of the ingredients, and had to make it.

Sometimes bakers call shortbread the 1-2-3 recipe because it basically has just three key ingredients---butter, flour and sugar. You can add other flavors, as is shown in my notes---ALICE'S NOTES-- in the following recipe. I have added a number of my notes. They might help you; if not, simply ignore. The recipe is pretty much borrowed from creative baker Ina Garten.

Want to know why your recipes might crumble? Read this piece on the science of using ingredients how and why.

And now onto Shortbread.  Enjoy!!

Shortbread Recipe

* 3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature [ALICE'S NOTE: For those who don't cook with a scale a have a kitchen scale, that would be three sticks of butter or 1 1/2 cups.]

* 1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling [ALICE'S NOTE: I always use less sugar than American recipes call for. Keeps the shortbread from being overly-sweet. For this recipe, I used only 1/2 cup sugar.]

* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 6 to 7 ounces very good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. [I also added 2 ounces of the chocolate and mixed that in with half of the dough so that the dough has bits of chocolate.] Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. [ALICE'S NOTE: I don't have a cutter in this shape, so I used a 1-inch round cutter and it worked fine. It did make smaller cookies, I ended up with 6 dozen.] Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. [ALICE'S NOTE: I put mine on parchment paper---no need to grease it. Our cookie trays/sheets are used for other baking--like fries---and are old, so to keep any old taste from getting onto the shortbread, I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper.] Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. [ALICE'S NOTE: Less time to bake if you make smaller cookies. I baked mine for 12 minutes.] Allow to cool to room temperature.
4. When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.[I re-used the ones I put on the trays to bake with..] Put 3 ounces of the chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave on high power for 30 seconds. (Don't trust your microwave timer; time it with your watch.) Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to heat and stir in 30-second increments until the chocolate is just melted. Add the remaining chocolate and allow it to sit at room temperature, stirring often, until it's completely smooth. Stir vigorously until the chocolate is smooth and slightly cooled; stirring makes it glossier. [ALICE'S NOTE: I took about an ounce of the melted chocolate and added 1/2 ts of orange flavoring to it. I also used crushed walnuts to add to the tops of my shortbread after I drizzled chocolate. See my photo above.]
5. Drizzle 1/2 of each cookie with just enough chocolate to coat it. 

When You Were Born . . . A Mama Reflects

My son would be nearly 27 if he were alive. Since I can't share any birthday cake with him this August 25th, I will post this memory that I wrote here. 

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

The first time I saw Daniel, I understood why my sciatic nerve had been sending electric shocks up my back and down the backs of my legs. A ten-pound-seven-and-a-half-ounces newborn doesn’t just come out gracefully; he sprints. And cries, louder than small babies cry, because his lungs have already grown in proportion to the rest of him. 

      The first day of his life was a Wednesday. I woke at four in the morning to blessed contractions and nudged David. “Teo is coming!” Teo was our nickname for the baby in the womb. We’d called him Teo long before we came up with real name possibilities—ones I liked that David didn’t and vice versa. Naming a baby can be exhausting.  No wonder some cultures wait to name a child until he is seven days old. When we found out through the sonogram that our baby was male, I said, “How about Daniel Paul?” and even though David had nixed his middle name for Teo’s middle name, he said, “Okay.” Later I asked him why he gave in. “The way you said it was so cute.”

     “It’s finally happening,” David said as he sat on the edge of the bed in his summer pajamas. “You aren’t going to be pregnant forever.”

     Teo had been seated on my sciatic nerve for ten days and was four days late. When I’d been a day late, David, two-year-old Rachel, and I went to the State Fairgrounds’ flea market for the sole purpose of me walking the baby out.

     “When are you due?” a vendor selling furniture and knick-knacks asked. She smiled the way middle-aged strangers do at pregnant women—tender, kind, sympathetic.

     “Yesterday,” I said.

     “Walk,” she instructed.

      “I have.” I’d walked as much as one could when sciatica pinched at every step. I didn’t tell her about the sciatica, I just smiled and wobbled toward David and Rachel who were looking through a box of comic books for sale.

     On the morning of August 25^th, I loved every contraction. I got out of bed while David made his way to the bathroom. His mom had come from South Carolina to care for us, and when she woke, we’d eaten raisin toast and were packing for the hospital. As we hugged her good-bye and left for the hospital, I thought how excited Rachel would be when she woke to know that her sibling was about to arrive.

     On the way to Durham Regional Hospital, David and I stopped to get gas, and at the convenience store bought purple candy called Alexander the Grape, just because we liked the name. David picked up a word search book. This was our second time to have a baby; we knew it’d be a long day. I was not a quick deliverer.

     Once situated at the hospital, David asked for a memo pad and recorded the timing of the contractions and an account of the day. When the contractions set me into heavy breathing, he put his pen down, but knew not to rub my back or hold my hand. I wanted him with me, but I didn’t want any physical contact. A young, skinny intern entered and massaged my shoulder. She cooed, “You are doing great, Mrs. Wisler. So good, Mrs. Wisler.” I felt David bristle and knew he was afraid I might shove her onto the floor.

     When the doctor checked my uterus and told me it was time to push. I grunted and groaned and thought my body would explode. Three more hard pushes and out came the baby. Slippery, fleshy, bald.

     The nurse weighed him, and laughed.

     The doctor leaned over to look at the scale. “Ten pounds, seven and a half ounces,” he announced before she could. “He’ll be walking out of here!”

     Minutes later a nurse with red hair and a wide smile entered to see this big baby. She’d been in the delivery room five minutes, when another came in.

      The second nurse looked at Daniel, who was now warm against my chest. “Congratulations! How are you feeling?”

     “She delivered this baby with just a small tearing,” said the doctor.

     “And no epidural.” My husband smiled at me.

     We were asked if Daniel could be on TV, some program filmed at the hospital about smart moms and healthy babies. He’d be filmed in the hospital bassinet in the background while two hostesses discussed a segment of the show. I signed the papers in agreement and jokingly said that this could be the beginning of his film career. A friend in our neighborhood had also had a baby boy. She had a scheduled C-section, so while I was pushing, Mandy was done and drinking a cup of coffee in her room. Mandy’s son and Daniel were on the program together. The babies slept through their first-ever screen appearance.

     That evening, in the hospital room alone with Daniel, while the news on TV showed the catastrophe in Florida from Hurricane Andrew’s fury, I breathed in my newborn’s scent and smiled into his eyes. “Thank you for being a boy. Thank you, thank you. Now I can hang up those maternity clothes for good.”

Daniel wasn’t the content infant that his big sister Rachel had been. He fought naps and bed times, and yet each day, I thought, he’s growing up. He’ll grow out of this and once he grows out of this stage, that’s it. No more babies. When he pulled himself up onto the changing table at seven months, I grabbed the camera. At nine months he was taking steps and before he was two he had had it with diapers and peeled them off. I bought him big boy pants and showed him the plastic potty we’d used to train Rachel. He took to it immediately which busted that myth that boys are slower to be potty-trained than girls. Of course, having a reward for using the toilet was a huge incentive. That bubble gum dispenser positioned near the sink encouraged Daniel to pee as often as he could. Sometimes only a few squirts came out, but he felt he was still deserving of putting a penny into the gumball machine and getting a piece of gum. Sometimes he managed to get two out at the same time.

     I didn’t know how much fun having a boy could be and felt a bit ashamed that in previous years when I’d observed moms of male toddlers I’d been sorry they had to chase boundless energy through puddles and around swing sets.

Our family’s dynamics were a source of joy and pride. We made up jokes, we crafted our own songs; we went to Atlantic Beach in the summer and enjoyed the colors of Boone in the fall. Rachel was learning to read with the Hooked on Phonics series we’d invested in, Daniel was learning words he found important like ball, stick, and mud. Perhaps I was too proud of my children. Perhaps I loved them more than life. I knew that I loved them more than I loved God.

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Cooking with Author Adam Blumer!

Today we welcome author Adam Blumer to the Patchwork Quilt Blog. Adam has a new novel coming out next week. And since this is a Cooking with Author segment, he has a recipe for us to try. 

Welcome, Adam! Glad to have your here. First let's get to the recipe.


Soft Pretzels (Yield: 16)

1 T sugar
1 T dry yeast (or one envelope)
5-6 c flour
1 T salt
2 t oil
2 T baking soda
1 large egg
coarse salt

Soften yeast in two cups hot water (110 degrees) and let stand until it bubbles. Beat 1 cup flour into yeast on low. Beat in salt and 4 cups of flour until combined (about 30 seconds). Using a dough hook, knead 1-1/2 minutes or until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, adding 1/2 cup of flour or so if needed and knead another 30 seconds. Place 2 t oil in a bowl and place dough in the bowl, making sure oil covers all sides of the dough. Let rise one hour or until doubled in bulk. Divide dough into 16 pieces, keeping the pieces covered as you work on each pretzel. Roll each into an 8" rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Put on baking sheet and cover. Let rise 15 minutes. Using a large but shallow skillet-type pan, fill with about 2" of water and boil. When boiling, add the baking soda and 3-4 pretzels. Poach for one minute. Remove with slotted spoon and return to baking sheet. Beat egg with 1 T water and brush pretzels sparingly then sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 425 for just under 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and eat warm. Enjoy! Pretzels are best eaten the same day, but once they’re cool, you can store them in a Ziploc bag for a day or so. 

About the novel  . . . . 

Kill Order, Adam's third novel, releases on August 15th by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. 

Here is a short description:

When he sleeps, the forgotten terrors of the past come alive.

Grammy-winning pianist Landon Jeffers’s brain cancer has given him only a few years to live. But when he sleeps, the forgotten terrors of his past torment him. When he wakes, shameful memories come rushing back. Desperate for answers, Jeffers discovers that a brain implant intended to treat his cancer is really a device to control him, forcing him to commit terrible crimes. Now he’s being manipulated by an evil crime syndicate and a crooked cop. 

What if free will isn’t? What if your every move is predestined? If you kill, are you guilty of murder?


 About Adam . . . .

Adam Blumer is the author of three Christian suspense novels: Fatal Illusions (Meaningful Suspense Press); its sequel, The Tenth Plague (Kirkdale Press); and the upcoming Kill Order (Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas). A print journalism major in college, he works full-time from home as a book editor after serving in editorial roles for more than twenty years. He lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with his wife, Kim, and his daughters, Laura and Julia.


Where you can find Adam:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Pinterest

Instagram

Purchase a copy of Kill Order on Amazon.


Thanks, readers, for joining us today.