Shortbread (Chrys Radmore)

Shortbread is one of my favourite cookies. They're great as a snack, they're great after dinner with a cup tea... and they always remind me of Christmas. Apparently, when my dad was younger, he used to refer to them as "Clean Cookies".

Christmas at my grandparent's house was heaven. Warm, cozy, outdoor Christmas light glow in the living room, the smells, the sounds... the incredibly uncomfortable dresses and panty-hose I always needed to wear. We always went to church on Christmas Eve with Grandpa, and when we came home we'd open presents and eat delicious desserts. All sorts of cookies, squares and cakes. The top-ranking in my books was the shortbread, no questions asked.

This recipe is credited to Chrys Radmore. Chrys and her husband Lorne were the witnesses when my grandparent's got married. Their nephew (Dave Radmore) was in my parent's wedding as well. Berdina Radmore's husband and Lorne were brothers - Dave Radmore was Berdina's son.

Get all that? haha.

Grandma is wearing a very light blue dress.
When I got married, I wore the sash from this dress under mine as my 'something blue'

So, onto the recipe, shall we? It's a tough one, so pay close attention...

The Recipe Card:

The Process:

When a recipe starts out with a pound of butter and a cup of icing sugar, you know you're in good shape. When those two ingredients comprise 2/3 of the recipe, you know you're in even better shape.

I creamed the butter and icing sugar together first.

Full disclosure: I can't lie...
I unleashed my inner child and had a bit of a taste-test at this stage.

Then I added the flour. 

I started panicking that it was just never going to get mixed, so I decided I would just my hands. Biggest mistake of my life. Before I did that though, I took off my grandma's ring and put it on this little ring holder she used to have in her room. She stored her rings on the centre part, some watches and usually some random earrings. It was always fun to poke around in it. 

Anyway, recipes like this always freak me out a little. I'm always amazed that all that flour can get mixed in perfectly. Just when I feel like I'm losing hope, it all starts to come together and it's a beautiful thing.

Back when I made the jam layer treat, there was a handy little tip about flattening the bottom layer with a spoon dipped in hot water. I was blown-away by this at the time, but when it came time to make the shortbread, I distinctly remember my grandmother telling me that before we pressed on them with a fork, we had to dip the fork into warm water. I was helping her do this and was singing a little song "dip dip shake squish". I was home from school sick and she told me that if I was too sick to go to school, then I was too sick to "dip dip shake squish" - but then she let me do it anyways :) After making cookies we likely sat in the living room drinking ginger ale and watching Bob Ross. 

In the oven. I've got my helper in the kitchen with me keeping an eye on the progress.

The Recipe:

Ingedients
1 lbs Butter
1 cup Icing Sugar
4 cup Flour

Directions
Bake at 325 for 20 minutes

Personal Notes:

• Absolutely not necessary to grease the baking sheet. The butter from the cookies themselves even melted out of them a bit - causing a little boiling-butter party around the base of the first batch in the oven.
• I gave them an addition 2-3 minutes, and I feel like it have have been another minute. Or, the oven at 350 for the same amount of time.

It yielded about 6 dozen. We ate a lot of them, brought some over to my brothers to share with his family and my dad, and then gave some to friends. 

Needless to say, making these sure brought back a lot of memories. More so than any other of the recipes so far. 

Next up, another one of my favourites Garden Quiche. 

 *~Tara-Jane~*