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Don't read this. I am an evil old man..

I fell in love with Lorna Doones when I was about three, I think. Now-a-days you can hardly ever find them in the stores in my area, so I went looking for a recipe. I should be shot for what I am about to reveal in this post.

Scottish Shortbread
stolen from cookie-recipe-club.com

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (I prefer Borden's)
3/4 cup sugar
7 1/2 oz of AP Flour (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup of corn starch
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla (I like Mexican Vanilla)

HARDWARE

One 9" pie plate or cake pan

PROCESS

1) Cream butter the butter and sugar.

The key to creaming, is to beat the mixture until it starts to turn pale. The idea is to not only thoroughly mix the butter and sugar, but to aerate the mix.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt. Modern flours do not really need sifting, but you do need the dry ingredients thoroughly mixed together.

The cornstarch will make the all purpose flour behave like cake or pastry flour during mixing AND baking. Note that you cannot get away with this trick for every pastry calling for cake or pastry flour.

Once the butter and sugar are creamed and the dry ingredients mixed, stir in the the dry mixture into the creamed butter and sugar. DO NOT OVER BLEND.

Flour your hands and pat the dough into the cake or pie tin until flat and even. Remember to dock the dough. That bears repeating. REMEMBER TO DOCK THE DOUGH.

Bake in a 325F oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is a very light, yellowish brown. Allow this to cool IN THE PAN for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a rack to let it finish cooling.

You will want to eat too much of this and it is too easy to make. I should be shot for telling you about it. Proceed with caution and moderation.

42 Comments:

I don't know you, but I love you. :)

been making that for years and its a fav. I like putting it on parchment paper to make it easier to transfer to a cooling rack. Also it works well made into individual cookies YUMMMM!!! SO loves em when I dip half in choc.

Oh yes, the magical combination of fat, sugar and flour. I make it in the food processor, usually as a gift. You're right, it's so easy to make, it's a crime.

I read the original post really quickly and thought it said "Lorna Danes." I was like, "There's a cookie named after the X-men character?"

@mollykate,

You shouldn't do that. You really shouldn't. I'll do evil things in your kitchen if you do that. I'll be in my kitchen if you really want me.

@cycorider,

Oddly enough, Lorna Doones were named after a character in a novel. Fortunately for humanity, the commercial cookies are not the faintest patch on this devilishly simple recipe.

Copy. Paste. Print. :)

With this title, of course I read it! And I didn't even feel bad copying/pasting the whole thing while eating my tomato & edamame salad:-)

You're not fooling anybody - you'd better find a new name ;).

Evil evil evil yes you are!!! But I like it. Any time you're feeling evil again, post away!!!

Now, if you were really evil, you'd talk about using them as the base of a cheesecake crust...

I was curious so I looked up the original Lorna Doone:
http://ask.yahoo.com/20020425.html

Apparently shortbread cookies do not figure prominently in the novel!

@heartofglass,

Ah, this is so very true, but the name Lorna Doone sounded so unbearably Scottish to the ears of Nabisco's marketing people that they borrowed it.

@therealchiffonade,

Ah, but I am grumpy! Heartofglass beat me to the cheese cake idea! Now I fear the notion of using this concupiscent concoction as the foundation for a strawberry and ice cream sandwich no-where near evil enough.

Drat! And, likewise, blast! Igor! Fetch me my drawing board!

@Grumpy--the ice cream sandwich idea sounds wonderful! And this is the only SE thread has given me the craving to read a novel!

He's just Grumpy cause he covets an ice maker. : )

I don't even like Lorna Doones, but I loved this thread. It's what I enjoy so much about some of you and your helpful and playful attitudes. There was not one ounce of snarkiness as I encounter on occasion in some threads. It's just not necessary. Thanks-it was nice to log on and see people playing nicely!

rock on - loving Grumpy Old Man! I agree - gotta use the real Mexican vanilla, none of that imitation crap. Anytime a friend or family member hops over the border from TX I get a bottle. It's strong and lasts forever.

thanks for the recipe, grumpy, i always wondered what "lorna" looked like (assuming it's a woman's name) you wouldn't happen to have a photo?

Yes, I have no icemaker! Yes, I have not picture of Lorna. Curses! Oh, and yes, Mexican Vanilla rules!

And welcome to one and all.

Happy Birthday to me ..thanks G.O.M. for the childhood blast from the past favorite treat! I will now throw out the idea of birthday cake & feast on this. {No sharing either!}
P.S. There apparently was a movie made in 2000 called Lorna Doone {after the book} & it did not involve shortbreads.

@stigcr: It's not that kind of movie. But it certainly could be. Being a total wonk, I just had to look it up on IMDb.

I have always had a thing for a Grumpy Old Man. Come do evil in my kitchen!!

izatryt, as soon as I perfect this Crema de Pinyon using Scottish Shortbread, I'll be right over. You'll never believe what I keep under my bluebonnet tartan. Serious evil will ensue.

Well then, I'll leave a light on!

So, you don't care what I keep under my bluebonnet tartan, eh? You're my kind of victim.

Folks around here will tell you I can certainly hold my own. Bring it on!

Dock the dough?

Does that mean score the dough?

CJMcD, No. It means to poke holes in it with a fork, the same as you would a pie crust. Be sure to push the tines of the fork all the way through the dough until they touch the metal of the pan. Do this in many places randomly around the dough. This will allow steam to escape from the dough and prevent it from crawling out of the pan while it is baking.

Also, I use Alton Brown's pan lube to coat the pan prior to putting the dough in. I just realized how many little tricks I left out. Alton's pan lube is made with 2 cups of Crisco (shortening) and 1 1/2 cups of flour. Mix the shortening and the flour together with a stand mixer or hand-held mixer until it resembles creamed butter. Stuff it into a Ziploc type bag and throw it into the fridge. It will keep for months.

When coating a pan with this stuff, be parsimonious. What you want is a very thin film of it, not something that will melt into a puddle of grease beneath your pastry.

Also, after you have patted the dough down until it fills the pan, take a sharp knife with a thin blade, I use a cheap fillet knife, to separate the dough from the sides of the pan. With a round pan, slip the knife in until it touches the bottom of the pan and then hold the flat of the blade tight against the side of the pan. Now hold the knife in that position and turn the pan rather than trying to move the knife around the edge of the pan. This will do a much neater job for you.

BTW, I own a cheap chef's knife and a small fillet knife and that's it. The chef's knife is clumsy as a boning knife, but it will get the job done and the fillet knife doubles as a paring knife quite handily. That leaves me with only two blades to worry about keeping sharp and because they are cheap knives, they are easy to sharpen and not at all painful to replace if it becomes necessary.

@CJ McD: I had to look that up as well. Docking refers to pricking the dough with a fork or scoring it. GOM is apparently from Texas but sometimes I wonder if he originally spoke the King's English.

In any event, I like his style. :D

Susquehanna,

I don't talk nearly as purdy as i write. Sometimes I write worse than I talk. It all depends on what I've been cookin' with. While in the construction business I found myself working with a group of Brits. That's when I finally had to give in and learn a little English.

@Grumpy - silly topic title haha

Is this another recipe you rub on your breasts? LOL jk

Well no, not Alton's lube or the shortbread, but the sabayon now, that's tempting.

I do, I do indeed wish Grumpy Old Man had a blog.

I see you "left out" a few tricks, there, GOM. Convenient...

I think I'm on to you! You're like the MIL who passes along her son's favorite recipe with either a missing ingredient or ridiculous substitution to the new wife. Food'll never be 'quite like mama's.' Although in your case, I have a sneaking suspicion you wanted us all to try this, epically fail, and invite you into all of our kitchens for generalized, evil-doings. You're a sneaky one, you.

BTW - Glad you're living things up around here. I was beginning to hear crickets around these "Talk" parts on more days than not. Keep it up. ;)

What @mollykate said! SeriousEats has been WAY too serious lately. I'm glad somebody's finally bringing back some fun. And getting @Izzy all fired up too--LOL!

tatianak at 1:57PM on 05/26/09

- I second the motion, a great way to get some food-related laughter out

@buffy ~ Doesn't look like GOM wants to play with me. :-(

Folks, I want you to know how pleased I am to know that you have been having as much as I have. Yes, I am plotting for invites into your kitchens. For me, food and funny are inseparable. It's what dining with others is all about. FYI, I will likely never do a blog. It would keep out of the kitchen for too long and I'd much rather be throwing food around with you folks. Besides, just look at what happened to poor old Joey Blogs.

Grump Old Man-
Thank you for the answer regarding docking and all the extra tips-- like greasing and flouring the pan. You're not as evil as you claim to be.
Wicked, like your wickedly good shortbread, but not evil. ;o)

Hello! long time lurker, first time poster...

Shortbread? Get on with your bad self.....

Thanks, Grumpy! Tea and cookies at my house later on...you're invited!

When exactly do you add the vanilla in this recipe? Or am I just going blind...??? After creaming the butter and sugar, I assume... Also, why not just use cake flour instead of mixing in cornstarch??

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