Great British Bake-Off Week 4: Millionaire Shortbread

We'll get back to Week 3, the terrifying bread week, at a later date. My efforts to make bread have not been very successful, fail proving! So I'm taking it to the pros, more to come.

Something I do know and enjoy, unlike Prue, are sweet things! I'm not sure you should confess to not liking sweet things when you're the judge on a BAKING show. Just sayin'.

Anyways, a friend of mine makes something similar to this shortbread but it uses crackers and some peanut butter chips instead. So it's a low maintenance version of this and it's amazing. But I'm also sworn to secrecy so I'll do the British version instead. This isn't really a common thing in the US but shortbread is a known, as are caramel and chocolate, just as separate entities.

I've made caramel once before and learned the hard way, don't poke the hot caramel. Like for real, even when it's out of the pan and is spilled on your counter, it's not safe. Blistering will happen. Much pain and sorrow WILL HAPPEN. Just don't do it, okay? Okay.

In theory, this is a simple recipe. The shortbread consists of cubed butter (no softening required!), flour and sugar which is mixed together by hand and then pressed into a square baking tin. Once it is browned, you can add the caramel which is just melted butter, golden syrup and condensed milk. And once the caramel is set and cooled, you just add melted chocolate. Simple.

But when the caramel ingredients are melting and you take a moment to enjoy the sunset and then realize you've left the caramel unattended and even though it's supposed to boil, it's somehow burnt a bit and you can tell from stirring that you've burnt the pan as well--well, then it becomes more complicated.

Never fear though, the caramel was salvaged. If there's one thing I learned from Bake Off, you don't throw the whole baked Alaska out with the soft ice cream, ammiright? True fans know what I'm talking about. So I used the caramel anyways which had the nice flavor of toasted marshmallow. The only problem was it never fully set, it stayed as a thick goo. So when I cut the squares, it became a caramel sandwich which oozed out.

In a bin. This is not a recommended serving suggestion for Baked Alaska. #GBBO #BINGATE pic.twitter.com/FqgNX9f5Lc

— BBC One (@BBCOne) August 27, 2014

They were still tasty and they were still mass consumed by my colleagues as well. I brought them in to raise funds for a charity half marathon I'm running in less than 2 weeks! So maybe they ate them out of charity, twice over.

Recipe
Crust

• 225g plain flour
• 175g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 75g sugar

1. In a food processor, pulse together the flour and cubed butter until crumbly. Alternatively, mix by hand in a medium bowl until the butter is well incorporated and the mixture is crumbly.
2. Add the sugar and mix to combine.
3. In a parchment lined square baking tin, dump the dough and press evenly to fill the pan.
4. Bake in the oven at 150C (300F) for 15-30 minutes until slightly browned.
5. Allow to cool before adding the caramel.

Caramel

• 150g unsalted butter
• 379g condensed milk
• 100g golden syrup

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, milk and golden syrup together.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, until it is a golden brown and has thickened.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. Once cooled, pour the caramel over the shortbread, still in the baking tin. Allow the caramel to cool and set completely before adding the chocolate layer.

Chocolate

• 350g dark chocolate

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate.
2. Pour on top of the caramel.
3. Allow to set before cutting into squares. The easiest way to do this is to lift the mass out of the tin by the parchment paper edges and cut on a cutting board (rather than cutting in the tin).

Buttery Snickerdoodles

Way in the way back of middle school, we had Home Ec where we had an entire unit devoted to microwave cooking. We also learned how to sew pillows in the shape of letters and pajama pants. Fortunately, we also had a unit on basic cooking like apple pie, pasta sauce, pretzel twists (with premade dough...) and snickerdoodles.

The snickerdoodles were such a success, that my friend and I decided to make them at home too. With our recipe sheet in hand, we divided the wet and dry ingredients and got to work. We immediately ran into trouble when we realized the butter was too hard to cream with the eggs. So we tried to microwave it to melt it but we had already added the eggs so the eggs got a little cooked. And yet, we persevered!

Even when the dough looked all wrong, even when we baked them and nothing happened, even when we waited 20 minutes and the dough hadn't risen or spread or moved at all, we still thought it was a good idea to try them. They were awful. Little clumps of somewhat raw dough with cooked eggs and just awful. After carefully retracing our steps, we realized that while I thought we were dividing the ingredient responsibilities by wet and dry, she was looking at it by column and lost in the confusion was a key ingredient: sugar.

Some things you can get away with forgetting: a pinch of salt, a dash of vanilla extract (purists, look away!) but sugar? No, you cannot make snickerdoodles without sugar.

So we tried again and were extremely successful. In an effort to establish myself as office baker in a new office, I volunteered to make cookies for an office function. Are snickerdoodles strictly American? I'm not sure but they are a quick and easy drop cookie (if 7th graders can make them, 27 year-olds definitely can).

Now, the issue I've run into is my recipes are all in cups which is great because I brought my measuring cups with me. But butter is sold in grams. So 1/2 cup of butter is 1 stick in the US but just about half a block in the UK (sold in 250g blocks, that's 1 cup). Not always a precise science. Also, it took me so long to find cream of tartar but when I did, I was happy to find it in small packets of teaspoon measurements. So easy!

To solidify my role as office baker in London, I made the Pioneer Woman's snickerdoodles for an office gathering. For good measure, I also made Joy the Baker's double chocolate cookies. This was a case of Goldie Locks and the butter. The double chocolate cookies had too little butter so were a bit crunchy. The snickerdoodles had too much butter and rather than being soft and pillowy, spread thin and were crispy. Still delicious and all gone by the end of the party but not quite up to my standards.

The simple answer would be to use recipes in metric but then won't I have to convert my teaspoons too? The plight is real and apparently I'm not the only one who has felt it. This article explained the differences in grams and teaspoons, various measuring techniques and all the struggles. I guess the moral of the story is, it probably won't ever be perfect--much like life--so you just gotta keep stirring.

Quick Sugar Cookies

In case you're sugar cookied out and tired of battling sticky dough on a wooden surface that you swear was floured thirty seconds ago, I present an alternative. These cookies were described as being 'crisps' because the dough was to be flattened but back to that whole battling sticky dough thing, that didn't work out.

So this is a bit of a drop sugar cookie that's lighter than your usual cookie dough. It is soft enough that a melon baller (or ice cream scoop) is sufficient in scooping the batter onto the cookie sheets. Sprinkled with a little red and green and you have a festive treat! This recipe makes a smaller quantity of cookies as well compared to other batters.

 

Butter and sugar are beaten together until creamy (only half a stick of butter is used!). Next comes the egg and lastly, the dry ingredients and milk (alternating). All of this sound familiar? You can top these cookies with crushed candy cane or sprinkles. Or you can leave them plain if you really want to.

Once they're baked to golden perfection, enjoy with your family or serve to Santa!

 

Recipe

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• 3-4 Tablespoons crushed candy cane or sprinkles

1. Preheat the oven to 350. 
2. In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in the egg and mix to combine.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Gradually mix into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
5. Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop dough onto cookie sheets, about 1-1 1/2 inches apart. These will spread as they cook.
6. Top with candy cane or sprinkles before popping in the oven.
7. Cookies will bake in about 10 minutes. Remove when golden brown.