Mother's Day and a Giant Rhubarb Plant

My mom was always so elegant-I don't remember her every wearing jeans,always in a dress and hair perfectly done

Mother's Day used to bring up so many conflicts and anxiety for me.  My mom and I had a very challenging relationship to say the least. And it took me a very long time to understand and accept her issues and my own.  My mom was seventeen when she was married. She was eighteen when I was born.  Even for the 1950's that was a young age to be a wife much less a mother. And she had no role model, my grandmother had died when my mom was only thirteen.

At a time when other women were exploring life or going to college, my mom was having a baby (me). She was pretty much alone since my Dad was away most of the time in the Marine Corp or working all day and going to night school.  We lived on a Marine  base at Cherry Point,NC for a bit. I was too young to remember anything about it but I remember seeing pictures of myself and my mom-she looked happy at the time. Then three years later my sister was born and three years after that came my brother. Growing up, most of our childhood was overshadowed by my mother's unhappiness and discontent with her life.  Alcoholism and addiction to prescribed drugs (in those days they prescribed Valium and a list of others like they were giving out gummy vitamins) just made things worse. Then she lost both of  her sisters in a plane crash and a few months later her father died. It wasn't too long after my grandfather's death that my mother took her own life.  At the time, besides feeling an incredible sadness, confusion and loneliness, I also felt relief.  No more fighting and no more drinking . But also no more Mom.

Mom teaching me how to look stylish while learning how to swim

It took a long time for me to let go of the "dark side" of my childhood and the sad memories of my mom along with the anger I felt towards her.  But I eventually did.   Now I can remember with sweetness, the moments growing up when life was fun. Working side by side with my mom in her beautiful garden in our backyard;learning from her how to set in tomato plants; how to sprinkle just the right amount of salt on a freshly picked tomato that still had the warmth of the sun in it; how to squish tomato bugs between leaves so you wouldn't get the bug all over you and just how good fresh picked watermelon tasted with just a little sprinkle of salt. She taught me how to catch lightening bugs in jars;how to plant lilies; how to grow the most fragrant roses and how to sit up straight and walk properly like a young lady should.

 And mom taught me how to bake and cook.  She was always the one who hosted the huge family dinners over the holidays. And for days she would  bake nut roll and cold dough cakes; breaded pork chops and city chicken and her famous potato salad . When our entire family sat down for one of those dinners there was barely enough room on the table for your plate !  My sister and I , to this day, load up the holiday table with food and baked goods,just like mom.  It took a lot of growing up on my part ,coupled with counseling , to be able to appreciate and remember the sweet funny mom who shared herself with me during special moments. And those are the times I remember now.

And tomorrow for Mother's Day, I'm going to sip some rhubarb soda water (we had a huge rhubarb plant in my mom's garden and now I have my own giant rhubarb plant) while I'm sitting out on the back deck admiring my vegetable garden and remembering my time with my mom. Happy Mother's Day everyone. Now go and give your mom a huge hug and kiss, don't let the moment get away.

I was completely inspired  to make this rhubarb syrup by Heidi who has a beautiful blog called 101 Cookbooks. You can find the recipe and her stunning photos here . If you want to try something different with rhubarb this is the recipe to try. The drink is so refreshing and takes me back to the scent of my mom's roses and our time in the garden. "Cin Cin", here's to you mom, wherever you are, I know you are watching and proud of the woman I've become.

Malted Milk Heaven

I haven't been very good at practicing "being in the present moment" lately.  I've been spending time longing for Summer weather instead of enjoying the beauty of Spring . I should be making things with rhubarb or asparagus,instead I'm experimenting with ice cream.  I keep hoping that if I surround myself with things associated with Summer then Summer will come.  So, after this recipe I really am going to work on enjoying Spring !  When I walked the dog last night the sun was shining and tulips,daffodils and cherry trees were in bloom everywhere.  Spring really is a beautiful time in Seattle. My favorite thing to see is all of the blossoms carpeting the ground-it's so pretty-makes me feel like a little fairytale princess walking through a magical spot. See, I am enjoying Spring..kind of (even if I had my woolly cap and winter jacket on ).

After my walk I was wandering through blog land on my computer and came across Michael Ruhlman's blog post about David Leibovitz's Malted Milk Ice Cream.  Seriously, how could you go wrong with something recommended by Michael Ruhlman and created by David Lebovitz ? So, being in the Summer state of mind I knew I was going to make the Malted Milk Ice Cream. And besides, the ice cream recipe called for adding malted milk balls (you know Whoppers) to the ice cream.  This recipe is so creamy and rich and oh so delicious. It needs to be served in small portions. That is if you can contain yourself once you taste it.  J wanted to sit down with the ice cream maker and a spoon, he loved it so much.

Then my next challenge was , what could I serve this with to jazz it up a bit ?  Not that it needs jazzing up-I could be happy and content with a small bowl and spoon. I remembered that I had bookmarked a blog post about Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies. Hmm, malted milk ice cream + malted milk chocolate chip cookies-bonus. I reviewed the recipe from Buns in My Oven and knew they would be perfect with the ice cream. First I was going to make the bars and just top them with the ice cream. Then I thought of making ice cream sandwiches. But then I remembered I had these Savarin moulds I hadn't had a chance to use yet and thought they would be excellent for the idea that was brewing in my little baker's head. I was thinking of baking the cookies in the moulds,plating them with some type of sauce and topping it all with the malted milk ice cream.  Taking simple ice cream and cookies and elevating them to something a little more elegant,

So I started to Google Malted Milk syrup and of course just kept running into Ovaltine-didn't want to plate my delicious little bars in Ovaltine !  I was ready to give up when I decided I would just plate them in some type of caramel sauce-so that was the next thing I Googled, and that is how I found Sherry Yard's fantastic creamy caramel sauce.  Now this recipe is perfection as is,but of course I wanted to tweak this a bit so I added chocolate and malted milk powder.  Oh my goodness-just the right amount of chocolate and caramel and the hint of malted milk. This is exactly what I wanted.

Malted Milk Chocolate Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Sherry Yard's Creamy Caramel Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed to 100 degrees F
• 1/4 cup creme fraiche
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• Pinch salt (less than 1/8 teaspoon)
• 3 tablespoons malted milk powder (Carnation or Horlicks, shouldn't use Ovaltine)
• 1 1/2 oz of bittersweet chocolate-chopped into small pieces

Directions

Heat the cream on low heat until it is warmed to 100 degrees F. Add the malted milk powder and whisk gently until dissolved. While the cream is still warm add the chopped chocolate and stir gently until chocolate is melted. Set this aside.

Heat a saucepan of water and place a whisk in it.

Wash and dry your hands thoroughly. Combine the water, 1 cup of sugar, and the corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Stir them together with very clean fingers, making sure no lumps of dry sugar remain. Brush down the insides of the pan with a little water, using your hand to feel for any stray granules of sugar.

Cover the saucepan and place it over medium heat for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, remove the lid, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Do not stir from this point on. Keep an eye on the pan. It will be very bubbly. When stray sugar crystals appear on the side of the pan, brush them down with a wet pastry brush.

As the sugar cooks, the bubbles will get larger. Insert a candy thermometer, and when the temperature reaches 300 degrees F, lower the heat to medium, which will slow the cooking. Continue to cook the sugar until it reaches 350 degrees F. It will be dark brown. Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 1 minute, or until the bubbles subside.

Add the cream mixture  to the caramel. It will bubble up vigorously, so be careful.

Vigorously whisk in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar, creme fraiche, lemon juice, and salt. This sauce is now ready to be served warm or cooled to room temperature. It will keep stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. When cold, it has the consistency of peanut butter . I poured it into a squeeze bottle and will be able to warm it in the microwave as needed.

To assemble this fabulous dessert, I squeezed out enough malted milk chocolate caramel sauce to cover the plate.  I placed one of the Savarin moulded Malted Milk Chocolate Chip bars onto the bed of sauce. Then I topped the bar with few tiny scoops of the Malted Milk Ice Cream, drizzled some of the sauce over it and sat down to Malted Milk Heaven . Bon Appetit !

You can find the recipe for David Lebovitz's  Malted Milk Ice Cream here on Michael Ruhlman's blog.

And the recipe for the Malted Milk chocolate chip cookies here on Buns In My Oven-the only tweak I made to this recipe was the amount of chocolate chips: I added 2 cups of milk chocolate chips and 1 cup of coarsely chopped malted milk balls.

And Sherry Yard's delicious  Creamy Caramel sauce recipe (without my additions ) can be found here at the Food Network site.

Croatian Cooking Class -The Pantry At Delancey

Amy Pennington preparing fried fish (smelt)

Remember the Good Fish class I took at The Pantry at Delancey ?  Well it was so spectacular I signed up for another one-Croatian Cooking.  Why Croatian cooking,well, even though I'm not 100% certain of where my relatives emigrated from, I do know (fingers crossed) that is was somewhere in the Croatia-Slovenia-Lithuania-Russia area.  That really narrows it down doesn't it ?  So when I saw this class, I thought great-get back to my roots or something like that. I learned so much in this class. The top 2 items being :#1, I love fried smelt and  #2 I love the Croatian noodles called Mlinci. What I also learned is that our chef instructor, Amy Pennington, is an author,blogger,gardener,chef,teacher,former assistant to Tom Douglas,lover of chicken fat  and a very funny person. Oh and she has a Croatian family. She spent time in Croatia and learned these recipes from the experts !

 

Addictive fried smelt

The menu for the evening was:

Turnip & Potato Soup - made with leeks,turnips,Yukon gold potatoes,sage and chicken stock

Fried Fishes- Smelt dredged in flour,smoked paprika,salt and pepper and fried in canola oil

Mlinci (those incredible Croatian noodles) & Roast Chicken

Apple Strudel-stretched,rolled and filled with cinnamon,sugar and sliced apples

Rolling out the dough for Mlinci

Since the whole concept behind The Pantry at Delancey is "community kitchen" that means prepped and cooked by the community -that would be us-willing students. We had our work cut out for us and we had a leader with a clip board  and "to do " list (always a good idea for organizing your meal prep). Roll out the dough for the Mlinci,chop the turnips,chop the onions,break down the chicken,put the soup on,bake the Mlinci,fry the fish,eat the fish (again caution very very addictive),slice the onions,eat some more of the fish ,bake the chicken,boil the Mlinci,fry the Mlinci,stretch the Strudel dough,fill the Strudel,bake the Strudel, drink the wine and sit down to a simple delicious meal prepared by all of us. This was no fancy schmancy meal,but this was an incredibly tasty meal and oh so very filling.  I should have walked home from the class to burn off the calories (which with the chicken fat,dough,sugar and everything else had to exceed 4 digit calorie counts !).

Still rolling Mlinci dough

Baked Mlinci, even as a cracker it's pretty good -looks a little scary but don't be put off by appearances

Once it's boiled and then fried in chicken fat -it's so very good !

About those Mlinci - I discovered these bites of deliciousness are made with flour,water,salt and eggs. Once baked they are crisp cracker like discs that you break into pieces and then reconstitute in boiling water. Then fry them in chicken fat-or duck fat (caution cholesterol alert). I found out that they can be served as a main dish with cream or butter, or topped with curd cheese and poppy seeds, and as a dessert when drizzled with honey. Anyway you serve them is going to be noodlelicious !

Mlinci

A recipe from The Pantry at Delancey

Yield: 6 servings

5 cups all purpose flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 cups cold water

Fat drippings for frying

Preheat oven to 400F

Place all ingredients except the fat drippings into a kitchen mixer with a dough hook. Knead until the dough comes together completely and forms a smooth ball.  Separate the dough into four even pieces and roll out on floured surface. Roll thin and evenly,about the thickness of tagliatelle noodles.  Place each piece on a sheet pan so that they aren't touching (you will need to use several pans). Bake until golden brown 20- 30 minutes.

Fill a large pasta pot with water and salt and bring to a boil. When Mlinci are cool enough to handle break them into wide noodle like strips-they will probably break into giant taco chip shapes-that is okay. Drop the baked and broken Mlinci into boiling water and cook until al dente, 8-12 minutes.

While those are cooking, add chicken fat (or duck fat) to a cast iron skillet or large heavy saute pan and heat over medium high heat, any liquid will evaporate leaving behind the fat.

Add cooked Mlinci directly to the saute pan or skillet. Keep them in a single layer and let them brown-don't stir them for about 4-6 minutes. Then toss once to brown the other side.  Using tongs, remove Mlinci,shaking off extra fat and add them to the platter you will be serving the chicken (or duck or turkey) on . Continue to add Mlinci to the skillet or saute pan until finished-add olive oil or butter if you run out of chicken fat. You can deglaze this pan (with Vermouth or white wine) when finished cooking the Mlinci. Then pour that fabulous liquid and brown bits over the Mlinci before serving. Serve immediately then head for the treadmill !

 

Learning all about breaking down a chicken !

Great idea for roasting- a bed of onions with chicken on top-the onions caramelize--hmm good

Makings for the turnip potato soup-wonderful aromas filled the kitchen

Amy starting to stretch the Strudel dough

It's a team effort to stretch the Strudel

Apples,cinnamon and sugar Strudel filling

Our excellent roast chicken and that heavenly Mlinci-nom nom chicken fat,chewy crispy noodles and onions

Voila-Apple Strudel-perfect ending to a perfect class

So proud of our chopping skills

Photo from The Pantry at Delancey via Facebook

This was such an enjoyable learning experience, I look forward to my next class there Pates and Terrines:Duck-watch for that adventure in mid-June. That class is described as : "One of our favorite butchers, Sarah Wong, is back with another set of fantastic charcuterie classes! In this hands-on workshop she’ll show you how to make some of her favorite duck-based pâtés and terrines: classic duck confit with new potatoes cooked in duck fat, duck bresaola with Rioja-balsamic gastrique, duck liver pâté with shaved radish and fennel, and mason jar pâté with cherry mostarda." By the time June rolls around I will have worked off the calories from this Croatian meal !

PS. Amy Pennington is one of those amazing woman you feel blessed to have had contact with.  If you get a chance to take a class from her jump at it. In the mean time you can buy her books : Apartment Gardening or Urban Pantry at Amazon.

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with the Pantry at Delancey and did not receive any monetary or product gain from them or Amy Pennington .

Smoked Coconut Cheesecake

I saw this recipe in Saveur several weeks ago and I've been anxiously gathering the ingredients to make it.  I had no idea what to expect as a result of smoking the cream cheese with the Thai Incense candle.  It is indescribably delicious. You have the familiar chocolate wafer crust ,then your taste buds find something smokey,salty,tart,sweet-they are falling into that tasting frenzy-what is this ? How can this be in one bite? And then just when you thought it couldn't get any better you experience the whipped cream topping with the taste of coconut and cream and white chocolate. And the taste that is left in your mouth is , wel it's  sexy,smokey,exotic.  Unbelievable-really, incredibly surprising.  Someone please buy me a plane ticket to New York so I can head straight to Spot Dessert Bar and try all of the Chef's incredible creations. Just look at this list:

Thai Tea Creme Brulee -flour less jasmine rice wafer, hot Thai tea

Smoked Coconut Cheesecake-young coconut flesh,Oreo crumbs, white chocolate shaving Chocolate Green Tea Lava-green tea-white chocolate ganache, green tea ice cream

Green Tearamisu-matcha green tea essence, green tea madeleine sponge, shaved white chocolate-green tea

Yuzu Eskimo-blackberries, raspberry foam, chocolate pearls,Oreo soil, chocolate ganache

White Miso Semifreddo-raspberries, EVOO, almond tuile, raspberry sorbet

 Kabocha Brulee Cake-oranges, condensed milk ice cream, walnut soil, jasmine flower wafers

 Soft Cheesecake-passion foam, blueberry compote, seasonal citrus, walnut soil

I would love to find the recipe for the Kabocha Brulee Cake, there are some on line but not his. Chef Chalermkittichai's  looks almost like a Chinese Tea Egg design on the cake and has several layers of kabocha lined with who knows what. Stop by the website to just drool over the pictures and then get in line behind me for his soon to be published cookbook.  I am amazed by the creativity of Chef Ian Chalermkittichai . Seriously,try the recipe-the Thai Incense candles are inexpensive and don't take long to arrive-after you have those ,it's a pretty straightforward cheesecake recipe. But trust me,your guests will be talking about it for a long,long time. Bon Appetit !

Smoked Coconut Cheesecake
Saveur Magazine Issue #147
Recipe courtesy of Chef Ian Chalermkittichai , Spot Dessert Bar ,Manhattan
Serves 8–10

Ingredients:

3 8oz. packages cream cheese

1 cup ground chocolate wafer cookie crumbs

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

¾ cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream, chilled

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 egg yolk

½ cup coconut milk

½ cup confectioners' sugar

2 oz. white chocolate, shaved

Instructions:

1. Place a Thai incense candle in a 3″–wide bowl; place within a larger bowl containing cheese. Light candle; cover bowl with foil. Smoke for 30 minutes. Uncover bowl; set aside.

2. Heat oven to 300°. Mix crumbs and butter in a bowl; press into bottom of a 9″ springform pan wrapped in foil. Bake until set, about 15 minutes; cool. Process cheese and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Add 1 cup cream, salt, vanilla, eggs, and yolk; process until smooth. Pour cream cheese custard over cooled crust; bake until cheesecake jiggles slightly in center, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Cool, and chill for 4 hours.

3. Whisk remaining cream, coconut milk, and confectioners' sugar until stiff peaks form; spread over cake. Sprinkle with chocolate to garnish.

*You can order the Thai incense candle needed for this from Temple of Thai

Pear and Vanilla Cakes

I love pears. Ripe,fresh juicy pears, with a thin slice of Havarti cheese. Or spread with a creamy French cheese. Or a chocolate pear tart, or pear ice cream, you get it, I love pears. Growing up we had a pear tree in the backyard, the fruit would fall to the ground and become a feast for the hornets and bees. Maybe that is why I didn't care for them growing up , it was too dangerous to try and retrieve the fruit, not worth risking a stinger for ! I'm sorry now that I wasn't brave enough to try and retrieve that wonderful sweet fruit.

 As I've learned later in life, sometimes you have to take a risk to get what you want. That's a lesson that is sometimes difficult to put into practice. Risk taking is frightening, oh not when it comes to pears anymore, but with life in general. You ask yourself, do I ? What's the worst that could happen,sometimes the worst is something uneventful and you go ahead and take your risk. But sometimes the answer to that question is frightening.  It could result in a loss of job, a loss of a friend, a change in a life style and sometimes even a risk to your health. A decision that none of us would take lightly.  Yet for some reason,  in the last few years I have been making decisions knowing "the worst that could happen" could be life changing, and yet I went into my "full steam ahead" mode and made decisions that drastically altered my life.

Some of my less tolerant friends chalked it up to mid life crisis, but those who know me and still love me dearly, know that I have reached a point in my life that if I'm not happy with something I'm not going to sit around and wait for that "something " to change. I am going to change that "something."  And if that means changing jobs,changing myself or changing anything, then I am going to move forward and take the risk and make the change. My life is just beginning to settle into somewhat of a routine after all of the  changes I've made over the last 6 years. From married to divorced to married to the same wonderful man again (thanks for hanging in there sweetie); from 911 police dispatcher to flight attendant to pastry chef to  travel company to cruise ship company to work from home. I'm happy with the job I have now, I love working from home , it feels like a good fit and I've passed my family's 6 month "whew she didn't quit" time line !  And I'm so happy and so grateful that the man I fell in love with in college stuck by me and took a second chance with me. Now the next big challenge will be where to retire. Do we stay put ? Belize ?  Costa Rica ? Oregon ? Or pack up everything and take a year long cross country trip ? Fingers crossed that will be the last life changing experience ( I can hear my family laughing now ) But if it's not , well isn't life just an adventure after all ?

Back to these wonderful pears, I saw an Australian Pear advertisement in a recent issue of Donna Hay magazine with a sweet photo of a pear and vanilla cake. I knew I immediately wanted to try it.  While the recipe stated the yield was 12 mine was 6.  I'm guessing from their photo that they used smaller pears and smaller deeper liners than the ones I had access to. Doesn't matter, my cakes turned out perfect and very delicious. This makes a nice light dessert with a glass of wine. And they look so pretty .

Pear and Vanilla Cakes

Adapted from Australian Pear Council (recipe appeared in an ad in Donna Hay Magazine)

Yield-6 using 3" wide by 1 3/4" deep baking liners

For the Pears:

6 Bosc pears, peeled and cored with stem left attached

8 cups of water

1 vanilla bean,split and seeds scraped

2 2/3 cup super fine sugar (You can pulse regular sugar until it reaches a super-fine, but not powdery consistency if you can't find super fine sugar)

For the vanilla cake:

4 1/2 oz unsalted butter,softened

2/3 cup super fine sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour,sifted with the baking powder and salt below

1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

Powdered sugar for dusting

Place the water,vanilla bean and seeds and the 2 2/3 cup sugar in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the pears. Cover the pears with a round of non- stick baking paper or parchment paper and then cover the pot with a lid. Cook for 25-30 minutes or until the pears are tender.  Drain on an absorbent paper towel,set aside and allow pears to cool. (You can save the pear/vanilla flavored syrup in a bottle or jar in the refrigerator for up to a month). 

 Preheat the oven to 325F.

Place the butter and remaining sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until pale and creamy.  Gradually add the eggs one at time  and then the  vanilla extract,beating well after each addition.

Fold in 1/3 of the flour,then 1/2 of the milk,then another 1/3 of the flour and the remaining milk,finishing with the final 1/3 of the flour. 

 Spoon the cake batter into the liners,  just slightly under 3/4 full.

Slice off about 1 inch from the base of the pear,chop those slices into small pieces that you can stuff into the cored out portion of the pear (that stops the cake batter from filling in the core of the pear).

Carefully take each pear and push it into the center of the liner with the cake batter-you want the cake batter to push up along the outside of the pear. 

 Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the pears are tender when tested with a skewer and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. The cake bakes up very pale-it won't brown,unless you over bake and burn it. 

Remove from oven and cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar.

Hungarian Shortbread-TWD Baking with Julia

Hungarian Shortbread-that sounded interesting,especially to me with my mixed European Heritage.  Honestly I can't say which countries my relatives came from. My one grandfather had altered his name and told us he was from a small village in Lithuania and yet what little of his documents we could locate, showed St. Petersburg , Russia !  The other grandfather fled the Yugoslavian army,changed his name and we think stowed away on one of the ships out of Belgium. It's all a mystery as anyone who might have known something about either of my grandfathers is long gone. So I chuckled when I saw this recipe.  I thought immediately-shortbread,ahh those lovely buttery cookies. But what a surprise as I read the directions and ingredients, I thought hmm,pastry masquerading itself as shortbread-was it hiding from something like my grandfathers?  I wasn't sure about it,especially the "freeze the dough and grate it " part !  But let me tell you, this dough was so buttery and tasty, I'm thinking of trying shortbread cookie dough ice cream.  I'm not usually a raw dough fan but I had to hurry and put this in the oven before I taste tested all of the dough .

According to About.com "Hungarian shortbread or omlos teasutemeny (oom-loosh TAY-ahsh-soo-teh-men-ee), where omlos means short pastry and teasutemeny means biscuit in the cookie sense, has a thin layer of jam between two layers of buttery dough."  I used my best and sweetest butter, Kerrygold Irish Butter, for this.Whenever I make shortbread I always try to use Kerrygold-it gives a much richer and sweeter taste.But, I made a huge error as I was setting up my mise en place. The recipe calls for 4 cups of all purpose flour- I only had 1 cup left-how could that happen ? So I improvised, I added 2 cups of all purpose bread flour and 1 cup of cake flour-hoping the low gluten content in the cake flour would balance out the high gluten in the bread flour. And it did. I was worried that the shortbread would be too doughy and tough from the bread flour but the baking gods were with me and it turned out perfectly.

This is very rich, and I think it would be just as rich regardless of the type of butter used.  It's delicious,buttery and sweet.  I didn't make my own jam but instead used my favorite Bonne Maman Cherry Preserves. The tart cherries set off the buttery dough to perfection. You can see what my fellow bakers did with this recipe by clicking here.

And thanks to Lynette from 1Small Kitchen and Cher from The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler for hosting this week. Now go buy the book and start baking with us .