Peanut Butter, Lemon, & Chocolate
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Chocolate Raspberry
Peace & Blessings —{-@
ShortbreadSwee-T
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© ShortbreadSwee-T’s Lemon ShortBit Duos
Lemon ShortBit Duos
I woke up this morning with a new idea, Lemon Sandwich Cookies. Honestly, I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. Who wouldn’t love a mound of lemon sandwiched between two shortbread cookies?
My taste-tester (my son) will be home tonight after being away on a school trip on the East Coast for a week. I’m super excited because we have never been that far apart since he was born, and I can’t wait until he gets home. I This new shortbread cookie idea will be my “Welcome Home” gift to him when he gets off the plane. I think he’ll love them.
My mind is always on Shortbread.
Peace & Blessings
© ShortbreadSwee-T’s Lemon ShortBit Duos
Short~n~Cheesy Shortbread Mini-Cheesecakes (plain, lemon, raspberry)
So today I got “cheesy” with it. I love shortbread, and I love cheesecake so I decided to combine the two, and I came up with Short~n~Cheesy Shortbread Mini-Cheesecakes. Everything about this is right! It’s not too little and not too much. It’s the perfect size. Enjoy!
© ShortbreadSwee-T’s Butter Pecan Shortbread & Almond Shortbread
When I began baking shortbread, I started off with 2 flavors lemon and chocolate. Since then there have been many new flavors, but friends are always asking me if I have a shortbread cookie with nuts, and as of today, I do.
Today’s the day that I put a smile on all of the “nut lovers” faces. I’m not a “nut lover”, but I found myself enjoying my 2 new shortbread flavors: Butter Pecan and Almond.
The cookies turned out great. Friends are already calling, and their happiness brings me joy.
So, I guess if I can’t please all of the people all of the time, then I should try to please some of the people some of the time.
I’m feeling kinda bold. I’ve tackled “Gluten Free” and “Nuts”, what’s next on the list, vegan?
Chocolate
I have a friend who is an old soul at heart, and he was born in the deep south, just like me. I state those facts just to say that if there is anyone who would know old-fashioned home cooking, it would be him, and he does not like shortbread cookies.
What I love most about shortbread is its simplicity (three main ingredients, delicate, flavorful, and not too sweet). What I have come across during my shortbread journey is that some people don’t think as highly of shortbread as I do. I think shortbread cookies are the best cookies ever (especially since they are so versatile), but my friend thinks there is no better cookie than a chocolate chip cookie, go figure. To quote him exactly, “Shortbread is the last cookie I would ever make, eat, or buy!” So when he asked me could I make chocolate chip cookies, my answer was, “I can make shortbread cookies with chocolate chips and a chocolate drizzle.” To that, he turned and walked away.
I can’t help but think that everyone should love shortbread just as much as I do, but that’s not the case. However, I have found moments of joy when grandmothers and mothers of my friends rave over the old school buttery shortbread flavor that I bring out in my cookies. That makes all the “nay sayers” opinions fade away, but one of my ultimate goals is to turn my chocolate chip cookie loving friend into a shortbread cookie fanatic, like me.
Peace & Blessings
People who know me personally not only know how much I love my baked goods, they also know that with every cookie, pie, or cake, I have to warm them up before I can enjoy them. Every time there are treats at the office, I nag everyone, “Did you warm it up?”, and they all agree that warming baked goods up does change the flavor.
Home-made cookies and cakes are my all time favorites, but when I’m having a sweet-tooth attack, I’ll eat whatever’s available. Even store-bought cakes and cookies that I’m not that fond of taste 100% better when they are warm.
© ShortbreadSwee-T’s Lemon Short~n~Sweet Baby lb. Cake
When I make shortbread and pound cakes I like to serve them and eat them when they are fresh out of the oven. Since everything I bake is made with 100% pure butter (and quite a bit of it), I believe that there is a positive correlation between butter and heat that brings all the flavors in my baked goods to life, and if you love butter as much as I do you understand. Warming not only makes the flavors more discernible, but, when warmed just right, moisture is regained, and you get all the “ooey-gooey goodness” back. On those occasions when I am serving “day old” cookies and pound cakes, I just pop them in the microwave oven for about 3 or 4 seconds. Those few seconds make all the difference in the world. It turns “day old” or “cold” baked treats into “just like fresh-baked goodness”, and I love it!
© ShortbreadSwee-T’s Mixed Shortbread
So, I have proven to people time and time again that unless you love cold butter, warming up store-bought, day old, or cold baked goods can be almost as enjoyable as fresh-baked cookies and cakes, and every time I give someone shortbread cookies or pound cake, I always remind them that ShortbreadSwee-T’s is “Best served warm”.
Photo courtesy of bing images
Thank goodness for Pandora Internet Radio.
On a baking day (usually weekends), it’s typical for me to start my day by prepping my ingredients, bowls, cookie sheets, and etc., but another necessity for me is Pandora, a free service that lets me pick my music genre and I never have to change the station again. I tune into 70’s R&B; I listen to Earth Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers, Brothers Johnson, etc., and it lifts my mood and energizes my spirit
So, when I need to make twelve dozen cookies, I don’t feel pressed because while the mixer is creaming sugar and butter, I’m measuring dry ingredients and grooving to the beat. When I’m scooping cookie dough and waiting for them to bake, I’m dancing through the kitchen and singing like an American Idol reject. I’m doing something I love and listening to music that takes me to a place and time of my choice.
I’m a true believer that things can be as difficult or as easy as I make it, and Pandora helps take the tedium out of repetitive routines. All day long, I’m dancing and baking, baking and dancing. Life is good!
Peace & Blessings.
What I have learned during my shortbread journey is: Everything matters when baking.
Weeks ago, I blogged about my stand mixer, “Who Needs A KitchenAid Stand Mixer“, and how it allows me time to get other things done while my cookie dough is mixing. Well, I quickly found out what happens when shortbread dough is “overmixed”; Let’s just say that the texture of the dough changes significantly, and that’s not good.
My shortbread is a soft and delicate cookie, but when I attempt to use the overmixed dough, each attempt is a failure. One of the main problems is that the already soft structure of the shortbread becomes too light and too delicate. The shortbread taste does not change but after they are baked and cooled they break and crumble when lifted off of the cookie sheet, and they become immediate rejects.
I found a great chart at Baking 911 called “Cookies – Problems and Solutions“. The chart lists different cookie scenarios and a solutions for each issue. I refer to Baking 911 for good information and tips or when situations arise that cause me confusion.
I would never serve shortbread that does not meet my standards, but because I hate throwing away food, my broken shortbread “rejects” become sweet treats for the household (they make great Shortbread Sprinkles over ice cream), and my son loves that.
Related articles
- Who Needs A KitchenAid Stand Mixer? (shortbreadswee-t.com)
Short~n~Sweet lb. Cake
I beg to differ!
Creating delicious, quality, gourmet shortbread cookies and cakes is my main priority, but after I, lovingly, prepare each home-made item, the “icing on the cake” for me is how they are presented.
I am no stranger to wanting something because of how it looks, only to find out that it looked so much better than it actually tasted. My goal is to make the best sweet treats and to make them look as good as they taste.
Making home-made shortbread cookies, pound cakes, and baby pound cakes isn’t hard, but it takes patience and time, and I don’t hesitate to go the extra mile when I am putting the finishing touch on them (the packaging).
It’s been said, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, but that doesn’t apply to ShortbreadSwee-T’s. I want people to be amazed when they see my baked goods, and I want them to be awed when they taste them.
This is also a lesson for my son. I want him to, always, put his best foot forward from the beginning to the end, and I’ve learned that this is a quality that can be applied to many aspects in life.
My motto: Strive for greatness and always present well.
© ShortbreadSwee-T’s Apple Shortbread
I can recall my childhood days while playing on my street with the other neighborhood kids, there was always “the cat lady” (she must have had 10 cats) or “the car man” (I think he had 10 cars), and at church there was “the candy man” (he gave out candy after church every Sunday). If you were to ask me what any of those people’s true names were today, I couldn’t tell you. Everyone knew them by their unofficially given nicknames.
Little did I know that 30+ years later, I would be called “the cookie lady”! How funny is that? My friends tell me that their kids say, “Mom, get some cookies from your friend, the cookie lady” or people ask them, “Is the cookie lady still making shortbread cookies?” They may not remember my name, but they’ll remember what I do, and I will wear that hat with pride because I will be a memory for many for a very long time.
I envision myself baking shortbread cookies for my future grandchildren and their friends and being remembered for always having “cookies and milk” for whoever comes to my door.
I accept my new title and I am honored to claim it. It puts a smile in my heart.
Wow, the 2011 holiday season was fantastic. It was a fabulous end to a wonderful year. Now, ShortbreadSwee-T is coming through for birthdays, anniversaries, and whatever else comes to mind.
While I was preparing for Valentine’s Day, I hit a real glitch. First, after I removed my batches from the oven, I found that the cookies did not look like I wanted them to look, and I can’t show/give cookies that aren’t up to my standards (and my standards are high). I didn’t worry too much, because I knew I had an extra day before Valentine’s Day was here.
The second glitch was a neighborhood power outage. On day two (the last day), when I planned to remake the cookies, I came home to a complete blackout. There was no power at all for almost an hour, and when the power returned, it was only a little while before the power went out again. The intermittent power outages went on for a while. I soon figured out that there would be no shortbread cookies that night.
I was totally unprepared for that mishap, and I didn’t know what to do. Here it was, the middle of the night on a work/school night, and I was walking around with candles and flashlights and making PB&J sandwiches for dinner. At the end of the night I was extremely disappointed because I didn’t have my shortbread cookies ready for Valentine’s Day.
That power outage was a great lesson for me. I know now that I need to prepare for the unexpected (have the dough and toppings ready – before I’m ready to start baking). Hopefully, that will never happen again. ShortbreadSwee-T’s home-made cookies and sweet treats need to be available even during a power outage.
A few days ago, I presented my cookies at a jewelry party, and they were a hit. It is always good to see people enjoying something that I put my heart into.
Peace & Blessings.
ShortBits and Champagne
Shortbread cookies aren’t just for coffee, tea and milk. This New Year’s Eve, I plan on toasting the new year with shortbread cookies and champagne. I’m keeping it simple, and my dainty ShortBits and sparkling white wine are a perfect combination for entertaining.
Are you looking for a great “small gathering” idea? How about a “cookie exchange party” or a “wine and dessert tasting party”? Try serving shortbread cookies with your favorite sparkling wine or champagne.
“Shortbread is a good match for a sparkling wine or blanc de blanc Champagne” (BrandonSun.com) .
“A dry champagne cuts through the rich, buttery flavor of the cookie” (SeattleTimes.com).
Shortbread and Champagne is a delectable delight (not too sweet, not too dry). I’m looking forward to sipping champagne and nibbling on ShortbreadSwee-T’s ShortBits while sitting by the fire with friends and family.
Peace and Blessings and Happy 2012! —{-@
. . . Baking Shortbread
Winter is a wonderful time for loads of fun, good food, and baked goods to your hearts content. Whatever your traditions or desires, ShortbreadSwee-T’s wishes you greatness in all that you do.
Happy holidays, peace, and blessings —{-@
Photo courtesy of bing image
Shipping? Not For The Soft and Delicate
Ever since I started this venture, my aunt has been one of my biggest confidants. I would call her in the early mornings and tell her how things were going. We’d shoot flavor ideas back and forth, and she would give me valuable tidbits of information along the way. So it was no surprise that I would want to share my delectable shortbread treats with her, but the trick was getting them from Los Angeles to New York.
Even though I knew that these were not your average sturdy shortbread cookies, (mine are somewhat delicate) I decided that I would attempt a postal delivery from the West coast to the East coast. I packaged my shortbread cookies as if they were fragile glass (with bubble wrap, newspaper, etc.), and I sent the box via priority mail.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to New York! Needless to say, I was anxiously waiting for my aunt to get her package of shortbread, but when she called to say that she received the cookies, I was totally dismayed, but not surprised, when she told me that the box contained a container full of crumbs. Not one cookie survived the journey. There was nothing but crumbs! My aunt was disappointed, but she said her crumbs were “fresh and delicious” and she will use her crumbs to sprinkle over ice cream. Hmmm, maybe I’ll call them ShortbreadSweet-T’s Home-made Sprinkles. I’m just glad that there was still a use for them.
Oh well, now we know that ShortbreadSwee-T’s home-made cookies are not for shipping; just a Southern California treasure and a lesson learned.
Peace and Blessings —{-@
ShortbreadSwee-T's 