Shortbread Geekfest

[cjsmith]

I wanted to see what factors helped my shortbread become so crumbly.

I changed three variables:

a) do I chill the dough or not
b) do I use powdered sugar or superfine sugar
c) do I add the flour first, rather than the sugar first, to the butter

I did all these in small batches, one-quarter the size of the original recipe, for two reasons: I'm not currently earning an income :-), and I really can't imagine eating even this much shortbread before it grows new civilizations.

1) Same as first batch done the other day, but don't chill the dough.

Result: Pretty much the same as I got the other day. It might be marginally less crumbly. It turned out of the pan okay rather than disintegrating, and stuff made with the previous technique might have disintegrated even in this small a pan. Definitely easier and faster to do than previous technique.

2) Same as first batch done the other day, but use superfine sugar in place of all the powdered sugar.

Result: Pretty much the same as I got the other day. It might be marginally less crumbly - as with number 1, it turned out of the pan in a unit. Dough much easier to handle than powdered-sugar dough: sandier texture, much less sticky.

3) Same as first batch done the other day, but add the flour first.

Result: Pretty much the same as I got the other day. It might be marginally less crumbly - as with number 1, it turned out of the pan in a unit.

4) (I had another stick of butter left) Change all three: do not chill, use superfine sugar, mix in the flour first. In addition, what the hell, I baked it at 300 degrees rather than 375.

Result: Shortbread. Well, okay, it's still pretty light and fluffy for shortbread, but it sure is getting there. Took more than twice as long to bake to a golden color. It got more evenly golden. It became more solid. Dough was, as with number 2 (the other use of superfine sugar), easier to handle than dough made with powdered sugar.

CONCLUSION: Do whatever you want with the sugar, the chilling, and the mixing order. (Use superfine sugar, if only because it's easier. Don't chill the dough, simply because it's easier. Mix whatever you want first.) The heat is the only thing that makes a bit of difference. And my original recipe must not be shortbread at all -- it's obviously a recipe for pie crust.

Taste test results will wait for the latest batches (the ones made with chilled dough) to cool.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Shortbread freezes *very* well, and lasts forever in the freezer.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh good. I was hoping. My first batch is already in there.

So I'll add my 9x9 brick of almost-shortbread and several more pie-crusts' worth of tasty crumbly bits, for a total of, what, about thirty pie-crusts? I expect when we sell the house, there will be maybe only ten pie-crusts' worth left. :-)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Wrapped in green or red cellophane, shortbread makes a *lovely* addition to a Holiday Basket! ;-)

Of course I thought of fruitcakes.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hee! And if you receive any, you can always put it (cellophane and all) in the freezer for NEXT year... :-)

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Damn.

My bets were on the sugar causing the problem. I lost. What do I owe you? ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Arabic lessons! 8-)

[eichin.livejournal.com]

mmm, wonderful scientific method. If you don't read it already, consider cook's illustrated - their article on angel's food cake is impressive (includes a sidebar on how to measure flour, with experimental determination of a 20% error bound on measuring by cup - in other words, "what are you thinking? just weigh it, if you want the same amount twice...") Definitely an engineering approach to cooking :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Glrb - must get kitchen scale. Will not publicly admit I measure flour by cup. Will certainly not publicly admit I just kind of shake it to get the top surface sort of level and call it good enough.

Cook's Illustrated sounds like it would appeal to my geek nature. (Is that sort of like Buddha nature? Hm.)

[eichin.livejournal.com]

That's the sort of magazine it is. (They don't take ads, either.) And really, most recipes aren't as sensitive as angel food cake. But it's also nice for things like chocolate-crunchies - a simple hack I picked up from the Jacques Torres show - 1 cup corn flakes, one pound tempered chocolate. large bowl. dump in the first cup of chocolate and fold it around. Repeat until you've run out of chocolate and thoroughly covered the corn flakes. Let sit for a couple of minutes, then scoop out tablespoon-sized balls and let them set. Very tasty, I think mostly because of all of the surface area you get (and the crunchiness is an added bonus.) The scale-related bit is that 1 cup of corn flakes is 100 grams - so I put a big bowl on the scale, turn it on, pour in corn flakes until it hits 100 (and not try to pack them into a cup measure or crush them or anything) and then start pouring in the chocolate...

I use an inexpensive little Soehnle scale, 9v battery, english/metric switch on the bottom. ($25 mailorder, I think?)