AJ's School project this month was assigned with a preview in December. They asked them to include a recipe that reflected our ancestral back ground. A food that is used during holidays or special events. Christmas is a special even. They didn't have to send the food, but my boy AJ? he loves to bake with me, and show off his baking skills. He listens the most and has the most interest in doing it the way I would. The others? they like to "improvise" or suggest other ways of doing it.
(sorry it's kind of blurry, imagine you ate it already)This recipe comes from my Mom's Christmas cooking book (read:scribbler full of hand written recipes that she's narrated over the phone to me various times). I have this one written on the back of an envelope, that a friend Lauren sent me in 2001 for Christmas. We met as a Baby group. Our Babies? AJ and her J are now 8! so we continue to email, and get Christmas cards YAY!! and compete in the ever popular game of Lexulous on FB (I know it's a huge tangent but I do that)
The envelope is very loved, and full of splotches of fat from the butter, or even dried on Shortbread splatter, but it's perfect. I keep it inside my Christmas cook book that I also love and use the most for the holidays.
So with out further a due <---- really does it spell like that?)
"The envelope please...:
1lb of Butter (2 cups, or 454g) ah I know you are sooooooo impressed right?)
1tsp of vanilla*
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 Cup of cornstarch, (I know? who knew that those boxes with the rooster had more then 1cup in them, but they do.)
2inches of salt.
<--uncooked on tray
ok get out your huge mixer, yep the more power the better (insert toolman argh argh argh here, it's power tools for in home bakers)
Cream together the Butter, as fluffy as you can make it, keep it going... yep fluffy, creamy, whip it... whip it good..oops tangent
Then the vanilla, the 1 cup of icing sugar, keep whipping.
Now put that baby on FULL speed whip, put in the mixture of salt, cornstarch and flour about 1/2 cup at a time. Wipe down your shirt it's probablly full of flour if you put the mix in while the beaters are still spinning. when you get to about the last cup of flour mix? make sure the sides of the bowl are scraped down and everything is together, and add in the rest, wait wait wait, yep it looks like either good or crumbly, if it's gooey? you are about done, and then 1TBSP at a time-ish roll all the dough into balls. Our last batch made 57cookies. I think someone may have rolled them a bit bigger in hopes he could get the bigger cookies for himself? maybe. Bake these at 350 for 20-25minutes. They will look done at about 18minutes and you can take them out but they will crumble. Keep watching. I suspect it's a "feel" thing. I wonder though how my ancestors did it without a 350F setting? I have seen other shortbread recipes made completely differently so I can't say these would be an original recipe, more of a work in progress? in 100+years, Im sure someone will come up with something different.
The cookies are then either thumb printed or pressed. We press them with a angel press I got from my mother one Christmas in my stocking. I love that press. We took a picture of the press, sent in the cookies in and picture of AJ mixing and pressing his cookies. He received an A+ for his work.
*I use that artificial vanilla and it's fine, and keeps longer, and no one is off swigging it, another tangent.... I had a babysitter that told me she worked in a store as a teen and had to monitor which customers were buying how much vanilla extract, I totally sucked up that story at 12yrsold, my Mom had 5 kids, I went to school she watched the babies, yes i was responsible...just couldn't be at school and home babysitting too.
