SCA Recipe of the day: Celtic Shortbread

For those of you keeping score at home this is a proper food recipe that is not overly complex because it is not French ;)After the May Eggs from yesterday, I decided to try and make a dessert style recipe. The shortbread recipe I used today has been used in several SCA Feasts,  and is from a 16th Century English cookbook.

• 1 cup butter -- softened
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 300° F. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the flour, 1/3 cup at a time, until a soft dough is formed. (Do not overbeat!) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until rounds are just firm to the touch. Yield: 16.

I'm personally not a fan of dark brown sugar so I went with the light version (not as period correct, I know...but if I'm eating these I want them to taste good!) Creaming the butter was a touch difficult, I don't have a electric mixer on hand that works (because my last one broke in a freak baking accident) so I did it by hand. The flour was a bit tricky, forming the dough but not getting it too fluffy was a bit of a waiting game. Thankfully I learned from yesterday not to keep my eyes off the dish, and mixed utill it went smooth. My formation of the dough yielded me 18 instead of 16, I experimented with various sizes till I found one I was happy with.

Now to toss in the oven! If you want to experience the same wait I did earlier, go ahead and wait 25-30 minutes before reading the next section.

* * *


OK, all done! Did you enjoy the wait?

The shortbread has come out of the oven, just as the coloring and texture says it should have from the cookbook. It looks and smells wonderful! The shortbread has a rich thickness to it, wonderful really and its very filling. Though I should try to avoid eating while still scalding hot...hmm...Regardless, shortbread by itself I would call a rousing success, a solid A.


Now to get creative!

Shortbread itself isn't a singular meal or desert item, it is often eaten with other items or various toppings. For this creative experiment, I'm taking 4 from my pile of 16 (I ate two,  hush) and adding various toppings. Shortbread #1 will be sprinkled with sugar, Shortbread #2 will be drizzled with honey, Shortbread#3 will be smeared with Jam and Shortbread#4 will be plain.

Shortbread w/ sugar is not too bad at all! The shortbread has cooled to get the proper amount of crumble to it, the sugar is a subtle but still yummy addition to the shortbread itself. Another solid A! Shortbread w/ honey just smells yummy, before I can even taste it I want it in my mouth from sight and smell alone! It tastes wonderful, my only issue in eating it is with is the mess factor. Honey is very messy and sticky, this would not go over well for the purposes of shortbread...though its still so yum. For sheer mess factor, this is gonna get dropped down to a B. Shortbread w/jam...holy crap! This stuff is amazing, I allowed the jam to melt while the shortbread cooled, so its an even and thing layer across the top...OMFG is this crap amazing. I wanna go buy like...a dozen jams and just smear the shit outta these things now. A+, a solid A+ from me. I kinda feel bad for the plain shortbread now, its so lonely and unjammed...

Ah well. I learned some great things on this recipe, and as always will improve upon my failures to make even more amazing food!