My son has taken to calling me shorty. Sigh, problem is that he isn’t wrong. But he thinks it is hilarious that he keeps growing like a weed and he is pretty much out pacing me in any high heels I may have. This ship has sailed.
Even though we are in the throes of a hot summer I wanted to bake for the kids so they’d have a treat after they came back from camp. In keeping with the shorty theme and trying not to overheat the kitchen I decided to make shortbread. I had made this before but my camera setup wasn’t working, turns out I needed to change the batteries on the remote. That was easy to fix but I may be facing bigger issues with the camera. Fingers crossed I’m not but it’s been acting very strange. I love the camera so I want it to behave!
Years ago my parents gave me a cookery book called “Cape Breton Pictorial Cookbook” and it was edited by Yvonne LeVert. It is a collection of recipes from the area and the influences from immigrants.
I used my hand mixer for this to cream the butter and sugar
In a medium mixing bowl cream together a cup of softened butter and a 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
This will take a few minutes. Add a teaspoon of vanilla and gradually add two cups of flour, mixing a bit in at a time. Tip out onto a floured surface.
Knead to form a ball. Now the recipe said to roll out. Which seemed weird but hey I tried it. Wrong! You definitely need to chill for at least a half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. On a well floured surface roll out the dough with a well floured rolling pin. Roll it out to about an 1/8″ of an inch. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes you want and prick the tops with a fork. Bake 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown.
Let cool and enjoy. We’ve been enjoying it with the rhubarb ginger jam I made recently. The tart and sweet go really well together.