TWD | Baking with Julia : Hungarian Shortbread

Jam + Cookie = Perfection.

The Hungarian Shortbread recipe calls for a batch of rhubarb jam and the crumbliest shortbread dough I have ever had. I chose to stick to the recipe as it was written and was excited to find rhubarb at Whole Foods. When my child saw it he asked if it was red celery.  I am sure it isn't local as our harvest season is a month away but it did yield a sweet and sour jam. The rhubarb jam recipe is very simple. You just take the ingredients and dump then into a saucepan to simmer. The dough came together beautifully and I decided to use my food processor to grate the dough rather than grate it by hand. I am not sure how much of an impact it made on the recipe. I will probably try to skip that step in the future and just transfer the dough after it is combined rather than freezing and grating. After reading through the Tuesdays with Dorie P & Q comments, I decided to pre-bake the dough before adding the jam and topping layer. It was a smart move and ensured that my shortbread was baked through. I cut the shortbread into two bite sized pieces and once I saw how much the recipe and my cutting yielded, I froze half of the batch.

The shortbread was so delicious. It is perfect for a brunch or a hostess gift. The only change I would make to it is to double the rhubarb jam recipe and add more of it to the shortbread. I felt like it needed a bit more jammy flavor. I like that the recipe lends itself to variations like using high quality jams or lemon/citrus curds.

I followed the recipe as written. Give the Hungarian Shortbread a try! Find the recipe at Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or visit Lynette of 1 Small Kitchen or Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler…, the TWD hosts.