The recipe for this week forTuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia is Hungarian Shortbread on page 327 of Baking with Julia. You can also find the recipe on the blogs of the hostesses for this week, Lynette of 1Small Kitchen here, or Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler here. The recipe was contributed to the book by baker Gale Gand.
Cookies are a popular item here with the guys. I can pretty much bet that if I make cookies, they will be eaten without any sort of encouragement or enticement at all. I'm wondering if it even has to be a really good cookie, or if even a mediocre cookie would still be an attraction. Can't say that I know for sure, but I do know that cookies disappear quickly around here, by the handfuls, it's their favorite baked good.
I've made shortbread cookies before, and those go over quite well. I have never made a shortbread cookie that was filled with a jam before, so that was a new technique for me this week. The book suggested rhubarb filling but I figured I would sub that out as rhubarb is really only loved by me...the guys...not so much. After surveying the choices available in my pantry, I decided on blueberry preserves as blueberry anything is extremely popular.
So, all in all, I'm not sure if it's the cookie, the jam, or this recipe, but these were a big hit...a nice sweet crunchy little cookie packed with lots of flavor. The recipe is easy (although the freezing the dough and grating it into the pan instead of lightly pressing it seemed a bit strange, it was fun to learn something new), could be a repeat around here quite often, changing up the jams used for the filling.
I made a half a batch of these in an 8"x8" baking pan as I figured as sweet as they were bound to be, and as buttery as they were bound to be, little ones would probably suffice. I was right...a little of this goes a long way and satisfies very nicely. It did take mine an additional 15 minutes to bake, I didn't even start smelling the "almost done" aroma until after the specified time, so you might want to take that into account, although everyone's oven bakes differently, so your call on that one.
