Cookies: a Blog Off post
Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive when bloggers of all stripes weigh in at the same topic in some thing referred to as a Blog Off. The subject matter of the cutting-edge Blog Off is "cookies."
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I love shortbread with some thing that borders on an obsession and I played around with if for years till I perfected a recipe that produces a buttery, fairly salty, rather candy and flawlessly sand textured shortbread. The ingredients couldn't be less difficult, the art to this one comes from the best oven temperature and time spent therein.
I used to try to make these with a spoon, however they need to be of a uniform thickness or they may not have the right texture. On a lark I offered a cookie gun one year and it yielded the best shortbread cookie. Who knew? Some people name them cookie presses, but I name it a cookie gun. It makes me experience greater macho that way.
Anyhow, I sold a Wilton Cookie Press (gun! It's a gun!) Pro Ultra 2. It's perfect --lots of shapes and it is clean to load and smooth.
My Ultimate Shortbread
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
half cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 half cups all-motive flour
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 stages F (a hundred ninety tiers C).
Whip butter with an electric powered mixer till fluffy. Stir inside the confectioners' sugar, cornstarch, and flour. Beat on low for one minute, then on high for three to four mins. Drop cookies by spoonfuls 2 inches aside on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Watch them like a hawk. Pull them out of the oven at precisely 8 minutes or they will scorch. Once they're out of the oven let them cool for a couple of minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar while they are still hot if you'd like.
That recipe will make sufficient shortbread to feed an navy but worry no longer. Take the extras, throw them in a meals processor, grind 'em up and make an superb crust for a cheesecake.
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As the day wears on, there will appear below a table of all of the participating bloggers in today's Blog Off. Give 'em a read!