Tutorial: Scottish Shortbread Cookies! =-)

Hey everyone! :)) what the hell? someone is honking outside my house right now. wow, way to ruin my blogging mood. I swear, people in my neighborhood are rich, spoiled, RUDE people with tremendously nice cars =.=;; ANYWAY! ON WITH IT! >:l

This recipe is to make Scottish Shortbr--wait. I wrote it in the title--WHAT IN THE WORLD? MY SISTER JUST CAME HOME FROM COLLEGE! HOLD ON FOLKS, BRB.

~~~20 min later~~~

what's with all these distractions today?! hahahaha. Anywho, this is a simple shortbread cookie--just like the ones that have chocolate or jams melted on em. Does that make sense..? sorry for the bad explanations... anyways, this is REALLY simple, AND made with ingredients most people have in their house. Scottish shortbread cookies are traditionally baked in thin cake pans, and cut into wedges, and eaten plain, but this recipe is the TINIEST bit bland to eat alone--but I did anyway :) Feel free to add in more sugar, or if you want to put your own toppings on it, go ahead and just use the recipe written here! It's absolutely DELIGHTFUL with tea or coffee. Really simple and quick! Whip out a batch before your friends come over for a cup of tea or coffee! Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:
-1/4 cup powder sugar/confectioner sugar
-1/4 cup regular sugar--preferably superfine
-2 1/4 cup plain flour
-1 cup unsalted butter

OPTIONAL:
-Chocolate (white, dark, milk, anything) morsels to melt
-icing
-jam

I used Nutella as my topping on some of them... turned out a horrible idea. I don't know why I couldn't register in my head that Nutella was already melted LOL. So once I heated it up in a double boiler, it didn't melt much more, and on top of it, when I dipped the cookies in them, it wouldn't harden (duh). so it was ALWAYS moist, lol. Well, we learn from our mistakes ;)Plus, it wasn't that bad!

and...
WERE OFF!


Gather up your ingredients homefries!

Go ahead and melt your butter :) but that's the cheating way... go ahead and just leave it out overnight and use it room temp! You don't need it for this specific recipe, but normally when baking, save your butter wrappers since it has some of the residue left on it--and spread it on your baking pan!

But as I said, I cheated :)

Take a large bowl, measuring cup, whisk, and spatula.

Throw in the powder sugar...

Now time for the regular sugar!

Because I don't have superfine sugar, I used normal sugar, and just used my whisk to smash them inside the measuring cup. Better than nothing!

Add that in...

Add in your butter, and whisk away!

Now, sift some flour to cover it.

Go ahead and use your whisk, but soon enough, it won't be possible ;)

Getting thicker...

Do this many times as you need to! Use all of that flour!

Alright, It should be impossible to mix with the whisk now.

Take out the spatula and press it all down, mix it up, smash it, whatever!

Repeating the step one last time!

Finally finished :) If you're thinking, "what in the world? I put WAYY too much four in it.. now it's just crusty and falling apart..." That is absolutely correct!

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 270 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cover your cookie pan! You won't need to grease it up because there's so much butter in it LOl.

Cover an area with newspaper, magazines, w/e. Use a flat surface/large cutting board; as you see in the picture, I have neither covered my area, nor used a large board. Yeah. I learned my lesson LOL.

Dump out the mixture :)

Before you start smushing the dough together, just press the dough with your hands--the heat from your hands with melt the butter, and bind the mixture.

After you knead the dough for a bit, go ahead and shape/make your cookies. But work quickly! Touching the dough constantly will over melt the butter, and it will be a sticky dough, and hard to deal with.

I was in such a hurry I made mine ugly and super fast (I was taking too long, and the oven had already been preheated--and was yelling at me I was highering the gas bill..) Can you spot the one for puppy Sebastian? ;)

If you want more of a traditional styled cookie, go ahead and take a small fork, and poke holes in it :)

In they go for 35-40 minutes!

Pretty... I find immense pleasure in taking pictures of the food IN the oven. :)

DONE!

Let em cool off 8)

While they're cooling, bring out your double boiler, or that jar or jam! This part you can do anything you'd like. I decided to attempt at melting Nutella even more.

Covered some of em! DONE!

All this cookie smell and the sweet smell of nutella for over an hour was making me nauseated, so I made some instant Shin Ramyun Bowl :))

Hope you enjoyed this baking post! The cookies turned out really yummy with coffee! The only other thing I would not do the next time I make it would be: not dusting the board with flour (I ended up with too much, so the cookies were a bit powdery to the touch). Also, I wish I put in a liiiitle bit more sugar. ;) Next time, Ill increase the sugar level for powder sugar to 1/2 a cup instead of 1/4 ;)) This is all if you want to eat them plain, btw. If not, follow these steps (except that dusting flour on board part) and top it with w/e! Also, I wanted to thank everyone who is reading my blog and supporting me with such lovely and nice comments. Thank you! This was originally made for my own satisfaction of posting pictures of makeup and food, but somehow, others found out about it. :) Once again, thank you! If you guys have requests, go ahead!

Best,
Jinna =)

Tutorial: White Christmas <33=

ROFL, I tried making an xmas tree in the title LOL. What a FAIL! Speaking of fails, I just got rejected from my dream schools Julliard and NEC. haha, what a way to start the post! -sigh- =.= REGARDLESS OF THAT, ONTO THE COOKING!!!!! Cooking always makes things better...
Alright, before I get started, I want to mention, this is NOT my recipe. I have followed Nicko's recipe, and although I had to change it a bit due to where I live, etc. But it's basically his recipe. I don't claim this one as mine whatsoever!

I was on a seriously tight budget this year for xmas. I have so many wonderful friends and people in my life that I want to pour my money over for. But unfortunately, I don't seem to have the money even to buy my best friends a decent gift. So! I compromised with cooking. I realized i'm constantly trying to impress people with xmas gifts--going out and spending hundreds of dollars! ..But now I realize, cooking little pastries is the answer :) It looks like you spent a LONG time making them, but in reality, it wasn't much work, and even the ingredients didn't cost you that much. So! Last xmas, I decided to make White Christmas for everyone. :) It was a TREMENDOUS success, and nearly everyone asked me for the recipe after they tried it. ;D

Let's get started!
These ingredients are enough for ONE batch only. I had to make several, but one batch made me... at the most 4-5 baggies. And guess what? you don't need an oven :) but.. you do need a fridge! ;D

INGREDIENTS:
-500g of White Chocolate Chips/Morsels (1 1/2 bags of a typical sized bag)
-1 1/2 cups of Rice Krispies Cereal (any rice puff brand will work)
-1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
-1/2 to 1 cups of Shredded Coconut (sweetened)
-Any shape baking pan (we're not baking them)

Optional: (not really :P you have to put in SOMETHING else than just the cereal and chocolate!)
-Nuts
-dried fruits
-Maraschino cherries (it's the ones used for cocktails)
-sprinkles
-whatever you want

I used a bag of sliced almonds, and coconut. The original recipe asks for alot more coconut than I wanted to put in--so that's what I gave you an option for the coconuts. I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but it's not TERRIBLE. Esp. in a pastry. I have to say, without the coconut, this recipe is just too bland. And trust me, this is coming from a non-coconut lover. Just eye the amounts of nuts of whatever you choose to put in. Nothing strict.

If you choose to use the cherries, halve them first! Take the stems off as well. And squeeze the excess juices as well.
and...

TAKEOFF!


GO ahead and line the bottom/sides of your pan. I used a bread pan. The shallower the easier it is to cut later!

Take a large bowl, and throw in your dry ingredients: cereal, nuts, fruits, etc.

Rice Krispies,

Coconut,

Here's a tip for the coconut--usually, the shredded coconut pieces are fairly long... and unpleasant to eat. So throw em into a cup, or w/e and just cut em up! Just stick a scissor in vertically and cut away! (I know, I'm so lazy :p) Let's save those dishes so you don't have to wash a million!

and Almonds!
*I know these bags are empty, but I didn't use all of them all in one go! I just forgot to take pics of them while they were still in the bags -.-

Now, taking a microwave safe bowl, throw in your chocolate chips, and into the microwave!

Take it 30 seconds at a time. My microwave is strong enough to nuke a planet, so it may take a bit longer for most peeps :p

Keep removing it every 30 seconds to stir--see? if you just look at it, it doesn't looks like it's melted at all... BUT!

If you smush them down, they're actually melted! They just hold their shapes as morsels. So make sure you mix them everytime you take it out! Or it'll burn!

Continue 'till they're completely melted. Yes yes, I know this is the cheating way to melt chocolate, but go ahead and use a double boiler if you wish. The key to melting chocolate, is to never let it touch water. Butter is okay, since it's oil based like itself, but water will just ruin everything. Just a drop can ruin it!

Pour it into your dry ingredients!

Mix it all up!

It should look like this now.

Take that pan we lined up earlier...

And pour it in! (The ONE picture I asked my sister to take, it's blurry -.- great.)

Push it down into the pan so they're aren't any gaps in between! If so, when the mixture hardens later, and you try to cut it, it'll just fall apart.

Go ahead and take the excess paper and wrap it over the top. Pop it in the fridge for about.. 3-4 hours. 4 Hours is standard, but it's just hardening the melted chocoalte; it won't take TOO long. If you're desperate, just keep checking!

So! I actually made mine after dinner, and I just took em out the next morning. Prepare a surface area--cover it in newspaper or whatever you need to! You're.. going to regret it. It's very difficult to cut, and it gets EVERYWHERE. Don't forget a large sharp knife!

It should slide right out.

I like to cut mine vertically like this first. I totally got carried away in cutting that I forgot to take more pictures cutting -.-;; sorry! But basically, taking the pieces we just cut, lay it on its flat side so its long ends are pointing right and left. From there, make more cuts; depending on the side, usually 2-4. I cut mine into cubes, but it's up to you.

Because I'm a cheapo, and I couldn't find any pretty clear baggies to put these goodies into, I went to the 99 cent store and found some cello wrap. It's just clear wrapping paper. I just made my own baggies. Very self explanatory, right?

TADA~ Finished! I just finished it off by using some cheap ribbon and curling the ends with my scissor :)

I hope you'll enjoy this! This is so yummy... my goodness, I only got to eat one! And of course, you get so much fly-away/pieces that break off; you'll get to eat a lot of crumbs :p Try this out next time for a tea-party, party favors, special occasions when you're in charge with desert, or just to eat! See you all next time :) I have so many posts i've prepared for, but no time to post all of them! College auditions are attacking me, and I'm going to be SO busy soon. Going to Ohio, NY, IL, and SF! whoo! :) Wish me luck! <3

Best,
Jinna

Oh, and Happy New Year :)