This is the real thing, with the traditional one pound of butter to one pound of flour ratio. They just melt in your mouth. I remember making this with my great-grandmother. She always insisted that the best shortbread should be made entirely by hand, so as a child playing with the dough was as much fun as eating the cookies. The warmth of your hands gets the dough to exactly the right texture for patting into the pan, so great-grandma had something good going there. The blueberries are my addition, but feel free to change it around with mini-chocolate chips or chopped dried tart cherries. You can even leave out any additions if you are a shortbread purist.
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These cookies have it all! Peanut butter, oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chips, Reese’s, M&Ms, you name it! To mix it up, you can use individual candy-bar sized packages. The more you throw in, the more fun the cookies are. Here’s a chance to use your imagination. The cookies in the picture use ½ cup of coconut, Reese’s, M&Ms, and a cup of chocolate chips. Kids will love dumping in all the fun ingredients, almost as much as they’ll love eating them.
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As soon as I see dulce de leche anywhere on a menu, it’s pretty much a given that I’m going for it. If you aren’t a dulce de leche addict, you’ve probably never tried it. It’s smooth, creamy, and gives a light caramel flavor to anything you put it in. “What the heck is it?” you might be asking yourself. I’m convinced that this one started out as an accident in the kitchen. Some cook decided to warm some sweetened condensed milk, and forgot about it. They came back to find a smooth, dense caramel paste. Instead of throwing it away, they tasted it, and a sensation was born. Lucky for me that Nestle’s makes canned Dulce de Leche, which you can buy in the Hispanic section of large grocery stores (I get mine at Wegman’s) or at Hispanic markets. I’ve heard that you can pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into a microwaveable bowl and zap it at 30% power for 15-20 minutes, to get the same result. That might be the topic of a future post.
For these bars, I wanted to create a caramel version of Mud Bars. I had a feeling the dulce de leche combined with marshmallow cream would create a smooth creamy icing, and I was right! I had to bring these into my barbershop, as they were far too dangerous to leave around the house. They are easier to cut when cold.
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Attack of the Giant Gingerbread Man
When I was seven years old, my mother left me for the day with my great-grandmother, who immediately went into her bedroom to watch her soaps. I was, in effect, alone in the house. I got bored…and hungry. I could have made myself a pb&j, but that just didn’t seem like very much fun. After rooting around in the cupboard, I found a recipe on the back of a box of gingerbread mix for a giant gingerbread man. Even at the age of 7, I realized that chocolate and spices were one of the best food combinations possible, so instead of using the suggested raisins as decorations, I used chocolate chips. My mother came home that night to a PERFECT giant gingerbread man. She also learned that 7 year old kids don’t realize that you might want to wash the gingerbread off of your hands before you open doors, cupboards, touch windows..toys..carpet..
I still say it wasn’t me. It was him.
Here is an adult version to my gingerbread man, made without a mix, and formed into soft ginger cookies. Every time I eat one, I’m reminded of the day that our house was attacked by my giant gingerbread man.
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Candice
Chef Dennis
syura
8