Christmas Goodies Tasting and Making Shortbread Cookies

 Since I had to mail my fruitcake to my family this year, I checked on their basting progress. Usually I don't do this until two weeks before Christmas... not the week of Thanksgiving. The question in my mind was did it have enough baste/soaking time to be my fruitcake. I was pleasantly surprised that the nonalcoholic version was just as moist and tasty without the additional final baste and soak time. Now whether or not the alcoholic version fared as well...I dunno. I'll have to make some phone calls this week and find out. 

No, I don't randomly send out or take my fruitcakes to everyone. These are friends and family who request them--all eleven of the families. The same went for my grandmother's oatmeal raisin, molasses, gingersnap, and peppernut cookies, and my mother's sharp cheddar cheese cookies. They are a dyed in the wool requests because they are too labor, cost, and ingredient intensive to mass produce for anyone who won't eat and enjoy them. Each box that went out was personalized to that person's/family's likes and dislikes so nobody got anything they didn't want.

For decades, I've done this for my huge family of 4 generations and have 7 siblings instead of buying them commercial gifts. For brothers, sisters, and my children, and grands there would be special handmade Christmas ornaments and a little something extra...also handmade. Being the oldest of them all and having five children, I set the example. It made Christmas more enjoyable and financially easier on everyone. 

This year I made shortbread and butter cookies for everyone. This included my neighbors and friends here next week.  I personally love both cookies. They are relatively low in sugar but huge in taste. A shortbread crust bases all my cheesecakes, not the cream cheese and whipped cream version, but the real cheese cheese cakes made with ricotta cheese. It's the way I learned to make cheesecakes decades ago. 

I always have ricotta cheese around from making mozzarella or hard cheeses during the year. I never let a good whey go down the drain, and it freezes wonderfully. I extract every gram of protein out of it now that I don't have medium to large livestock that enjoy it. I do save the whey for baking and give to the chickens during the winter months. The chickens thoroughly enjoy the warm whey in the winter. The extra protein in the absence of bugs is good for them.  With all this chatter about cheesecake it almost sounds as if I'd follow up with my baked cheesecake recipe if you didn't read the title of this post, doesn't it? But it's all about my husband's great grandma's shortbread cookies. I used to listen to stories about her at family get togethers. If I remember the stories correctly, she was still living when my beloved was born. So to me, this was one of those stories recanted in a time when I was alive which makes it part of living history for me. She died in 1963 at age 105 years young and my husband was 15 so he had lots of memories of her.

According to the family, she had an German embossed rolling pin that she used just for these cookies at Christmas similar to the one pictured left. I don't have one of those so I substituted my own version pictured below. Where she got the recipe from I don't know. But, it became part of my dearly departed husband's memories and family legacy. No one other than I successfully replicated the taste of her cookies according to the family. I guess it was the honor, respect, and the love that I put into making her recipe. The pictured version is my decorating this 4 ingredient cookie, but I made it five for added flavor. Grinning

Great Grandmother Havers' Shortbread Cookies

Makes 8 dozen

What you'll need

3 cups unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted twice*

4 1/2 cups twice ground all purpose flour, sifted*

1 1/2 cups corn starch, sifted *

1 tsp vanilla (not in original recipe)

Note- * General instruction for all sifted ingredients- measure after sifting. If you do not, there will be too much of the ingredient in the recipe.

* Firmly pack flour into measuring cup. Add it to a blender and pulse it until ground again. Sift contents of the blender onto parchment paper. I believe this is now called pastry flour. Spoon into measuring cup and measure out 4 1/2 cups for this recipe. My husband's great grandmother used a hand powered flour mill to grind the flour again.

Putting it all together

• Sift flour and corn starch together.
• Place sugar and butter in a mixing bowl.
• Beat on high until the mixture is fluffy and light (of course, Great Grandmother did this by hand)
• Add the flour mixture in 1/2 cup increments beating well between additions. Continue until the all the flour mixture is fully incorporated.
• (Great Grandmother's instructions) Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness using the imprint rolling pin on the last roll to get the impression to cut the cookie. Cut cookies apart.
• (My version) Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a round ball. Flatten it to form 1/4" thick circle. Or, press in center like the mini Hershey Kiss and strawberry jam variations above, and then, flatten slightly. Like thumb print cookies.
• Fill the thumb print cookies with strawberry jam, lemon curd, chocolate, or fig preserves as I did.
• Place cookies on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake 300 degrees for 20 minutes.
• Let cool on the pan before removing.
• Decorate as desired.

Warning-It's very important not to remove the cookies from the pan before it's cooled or it will crumble in hundreds of pieces if you do.

You must work quickly when rolling out the balls. The heat of your hands will melt then butter too quickly. You need the butter to be in the semi solid state to have the fine crumble that is classic to shortbread. You may put the dough in the refrigerator and bring it out to room temperature(between 60-72 degrees) before rolling the balls if it gets too warm. This is why I never make her shortbread in the summer time in Georgia. I'll make the bases of cheesecakes in the winter or springtime and freeze them until I need them.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo