ratios

My family is getting on a plane this evening, traveling to see two sets of loved ones for Thanksgiving. This means I’m currently putting off packing and thinking about airplane snacks. Therefore, shortbread!

Shortbread is one of my favorite spur of the moment things to bake. It’s simple. It’s forgiving. It’s delicious. I’ve fallen out of the habit recently, but baking shortbread was even a part of my wedding vows.

Here’s how I do it these days: 1-2-3 Shortbread – 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, 3 parts flour.

6 oz flour – can be pastry or AP or a blend including oat flour. add a bit of rice flour if you like your shortbread crisp.
4 oz cold, unsalted butter
2 oz sugar
1/2 tsp salt
flavoring and additions such as today’s:
- 1/2 t vanilla
- 1/4 c baker’s cut candied ginger
- 2 T chocolate coated cocoa nibs

Blend flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer*, fitted with the paddle attachment. Cut the butter into slices or cubes and add to the flour mixture. Mix on low until the dough begins to come together. This will take a long time, ~10 minutes**. You’ll see it progress from floury to sandy to pea sized clumps.

From this:

To this

Once the dough begins to come together, add your flavorings and mix until well-incorporated.

Once the dough is blended, press it into a log (~2in diameter), or a rectangle or circle (~1/2 in thick), or shortbread molds if you have them and are feeling fancy, and chill for a bit in the refrigerator (30 minutes to… forever, more or less) either covered or wrapped in plastic wrap. Slice or cut into your desired shape and bake at 350ºF until done, just beginning to color at the edges, golden but not deep brown.

(Baking depends on the shape and thickness of your cookies. The fingers I just made took ~17 minutes.)

*yes, you really do want a stand mixer for this.

**this is why I said you’d really want a stand mixer

With apologies to my gluten intolerant and paleo friends, I’m currently between paying gigs, it’s Autumn, and therefore I’m baking a lot. This topic is liable to crop up more than once in the coming weeks.

Today, the ~~ravenous hordes~~ kids will be home for the afternoon with a couple friends to play D & D, and (partly in an effort to get them to eat something besides every cracker or corn chip in the house) I’m making muffins. Just muffins. Nothing fancy.

Just Muffins go something like this*:

8 oz (1 and a half generous cups) some blend of whole grain flours, maybe with 1/4 rolled oats (4 parts)
2 oz (1 generous quarter cup) sugar or some similar sweetener (1 part)
8 oz (1 cup) milk or some similar liquid (4 parts)
2 eggs (2 parts)
2 oz (4T, half a stick) melted butter or oil (1 part)
scant 1.5 tsp baking powder (1 tsp per 5 oz flour)
.75 tsp salt (.5 tsp per 5 oz flour)
fruit, nuts, etc.
spices

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, adding additions such as fruit and nuts to the dry, then fold together until just blended. Bake at 350ºF for ~20 minutes. 8 oz flour yields a dozen or so regular size muffins.

Within the basic ratios and keeping the baking powder standard, I tend to vary these muffins quite a bit. Today version has spelt flour, buttermilk and milk for the liquid (because I had a tiny bit of buttermilk hanging around), a chopped apple, some cranberries, some apple pie spice. I sprinkled the tops with more apple pie spice mixed with sugar before baking. (Sprinkling the tops with something + sugar is a super easy way to make Just Muffins a little bit more like treats without adding much more sugar. NB: This also works with scones.) They smell delicious.

I have this formula memorized, which means I can often produce muffins as a handy houseguest trick, as well as a quick way to sate the ~~hordes~~ kids. (To take the muffins savory instead of sweet, just dial back the sweetener.) Baking warms the house on a chilly afternoon and muffins go great with tea, which goes great with Autumn.

*Adapted from Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, which is often how I roll when baking.

there is no perfect

Procrastinating via Shortbread

It’s Just a Muffin