Shortbread

Last night I watched bad TV and rifled through my overstuffed folder of random recipes, copying down the ones I loved into an actual recipe book and tossing the rest. In the folder there were little bits of paper, post it notes, cut outs from newspapers and photocopied pages from books.

Many recipes had to do with cookies, cakes, bars and other desserts. When I was in high school and even into college, I loved to bake. I used to say that if/when this whole web thing fell apart, then I’d pursue my true calling in life, to be a pastry chef.

From my local library I had photocopied some of my favorite recipes from Maida Heatter’s pastry books. When I refound her recipe for shortbread I knew I had to make it immediately. One hour later I had a 9″ round of flaky, perfect, oat shortbread. Yum!

I idolized Maida. Her loving descriptions of her creations give me warm fuzzy feelings.

“Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you.” Maida Heatter from Star Chefs.

I think it is time to revisit the budding pastry chef inside…