What I won’t be doing is shifting immediately into Christmas guerrilla mode; we like to keep the year-end holidays separate for at least a couple of weeks. We’re what most people (like, say my sister-in-law, who wraps up her holiday shopping in July) must think of as last-minute Yuletide yokels, but that’s how we roll.
My mother hit a happy medium between my sister-in-law and me—the Christmas furbelows didn’t come up from the basement until the second week of December, and if had some last-minute shopping to do it was no sweat.
The one area where she got the jump on me every year was the Christmas baking. The fruitcake was baked in early November and lolled in brandy-soaked cheesecloth until Christmas.
The homemade mincemeat enjoyed a similarly alcoholic month in a gigantic jar in the fridge door.
And thanks to a chest freezer any number of goodies, from sausage rolls to butter tarts were ready to be thawed at their appointed times.
Shortbread cookies actually improve in flavor if they’re baked three weeks ahead and stored at room temp in a tightly covered tin.
The ingredients are few, the method is so easy a child of eight can make them—I did—and the sandy texture and buttery not-too-sweet flavor tastes like Christmas to me. I love them as much as my mother-in-law’s celestial Christmas cannollis.
But here’s the thing: this dough is as versatile as Steve Martin. It can be rolled and turned into bells and snowmen with your set of Christmas cookie cutters. Roll them a bit thicker, cut them into circles, poke the centers with your thumb, and when they’ve cooled, fill the indentations with raspberry jam. Voila! Thumbprint cookies! Add a half teaspoon of almond extract, and decorate the tops with slivered almonds. It’s not strictly Scotch Shortbread—more like a Swedish Shortbread —but just as fabulous.
This dough has become my go-to base for bar cookies. Spread it into a baking pan—using your hands works best – and bake it for three quarters of the allotted time. Pour a filling, say the one you made for your Thanksgiving pecan pie, onto the crust and bake it until the filling is firmed up. And ooh, ooh! If you press the dough into individual tart tins, prick it all over with a fork, let it bake completely and cool, you have instant elegant tiny tart shells.
Get a jar of Trader Joe’s lemon curd, (or make your own) and behold: a snazzy treat to set on your Christmas Spode cake plate.
I make the cookies the same way I did that Christmas I was eight: I cut them into one by two inch (or thereabouts) rectangles and garnish the centers with half a red or green glace cherry. T’is the season for tradition, after all.
SCOTCH SHORTBREAD COOKIES
Ingredients
One cup (two sticks) softened butter. I like salted butter in this recipe
Two cups sifted all purpose flour
½ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Cream the butter using a hand mixer, a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon and elbow grease.
Blend the dry ingredients into the butter.
Roll out to ¼ inch in thickness.
Cut into your desired shapes.
Bake on an ungreased sheet pan for 25 to 30 minutes. They should be the palest golden brown.
