3000 miles 'til dinner.

Original MIL Mission #33: Scottish Shortbread.

Well, it’s the holidays folks (cue Captain Obvious remarks here). And with the holidays comes holiday cookie baking time! So in keeping with the spirit of Christmas, I figured that it was no better time than now to tackle the Scottish Shortbread mission. I’m completely into the savory yet sweet trend that is all the rage these days so buttery shortbread, here I come!

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

The ingredients - so basic and simple.

I loved all the shortbread options MIL gave. And because I also love citrusy baked goods, I opted to make lemony scottish shortbreads for this year’s holidays.

Wonder if the vitamin C benefit will stay through the baking process…. Naaaah, probably not, but I guess who cares?

And I’ll just come out with it now — it took me three batches before I got this recipe right (*sigh*). And where I’m pretty sure I failed was not pulsing my butter enough to get it soft and creamy. I was having some issues getting my butter to spin for 4 minutes in my Cuisinart. This was my not so soft and creamy butter. 

But that’s necessary in order to make the dough stay together. My workaround ended up being adding the sugar, vanilla and salt to the butter after a quick spin. And then letting that mixture have a go at it in the Cuisinart for a few minutes. That seemed to do the trick, and I was finally able to make cookie dough that could be rolled out.

So that others may learn from my mistake — here comes my visual lesson for the day.

Crumbly dough:

Good dough:

And here is the rolled out dough that did not become a crumbly mess. Because I was making smaller cookies for my holiday gift bundles, I used a small glass to cut out picture-perfect circle-lettes.

And into the oven they go!

I definitely recommend keeping closer to the 10 - 12 minute baking time (depending on your oven). Although the cookies will be very light and you may think they’re not done (like I did), they are much better than if you over-crisp them.

♥MIL MISSION #33: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Phew! I did it!…. eventually. I was able to squeak out some cookies from my crumbly batches — although they were more shortbread BISCUITS rather than shortbread cookies, they still tasted delicious. I really loved the buttery, savory sweetness of these cookies. And my good batches, which were gifted to my local friends and pseudo family, got rave reviews from all recipients. Just goes to show that practice, persistence and patience (yes, ALL that!) can eventually make perfect!

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 30 minutes

Difficulty: 2.5 (I’m giving myself 1.5 points for having to learn about the butter fiasco, but once you got that down, this recipe is very easy)

Deliciousness: 4

Impressed Husband factor: 4

Leftover-friendly: 5