Tuesdays With Dorie: Hungarian Shortbread

My first reaction to reading the recipe for this week was “Holy #$%^, that’s a lot of butter.” The recipe called for 1 lb of the stuff. I decided to only make 3/4 of the recipe since the proportions worked well when divided. And who needs all those cookies lying around? This was an EASY recipe. And easily adapted, I think. I think some lemon zest in the cookie dough would add some needed tartness, and the jam in the center can be changed according to your whim. I wasn’t in the mood to search for rhubarb to make the jam called for in the recipe, or to make something special for this, so I went into my pantry and found a jar of blackberry/raspberry preserves that I recieved in a jam exchange. Yes, I participated in a jam exchange last year.
I followed the suggestions of those who made the recipe before me and par-baked the bottom crust for 15 minutes. When I pulled it out of the oven butter had pooled in the nooks and crannies of the dough. I made a conscious decision to not think about that. I slathered on the jam, added the rest of the dough and put it back in the oven….conciously trying not to think about all the butter that was in there.

In the end, I cut the cookies up and put them into a tin and sent them to school with my daughter. They went into the faculty lounge, and I heard from several teachers that they were delicious. I loved the way the crust was crackly and covered in confectioners sugar….it reminded me of an Entenmann’s crumb cake! I haven’t had a bite of one of those in years. And that’s okay!

The book suggests cutting the cookies into 3 inch square cookies, or 1 1/2 by 3 inch rectangles. I couldn’t do that. I cut mine about 1 1/2 inches square. nobody needs to eat that much butter. I only kept two of these pictured cookies. One for me and one for David. I cut mine in half and ate it slowly, as the day progressed.

It was delicious. Sweet, but not overly so. The jam provided a nice fruity taste against all that butter. All. That. Butter.

The recipe for Hungarian Shortbread can be found on page 327 of the book. Our hosts for this week are Lynette of 1 Small Kitchen and Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler. You can find the recipe on their blogs. You can also visit Tuesdays With Dorie for the LYL (leave your link) post to see how the other bakers’ shortbreads came out. I’m sure there will be many delicious offerings!