Beurre d'Isigny
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"To cook is to create. And to create well...is an act of integrity, and faith."

"Shortbread has beneficial effects on the soul. The warm glow it gives is
better than alcohol, and more readily available than sex. Only 90p for a
box (cardboard) of the best brand. Doesn't always work, though."
~ Lucy Ellman, "Sweet Desserts"

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Supper of the Lamb:
A Culinary Reflection

On Food and Cooking:
The Science and Lore
of the Kitchen

 
Biscuits Lefevre Utile
Mucha, Alphonse
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Butter
Marcel Duffas
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"Cookies are made of butter and love."
~ Norwegian Proverb

 

Butter


More Home Cooking:
A Writer Returns to the Kitchen
by Laurie Colwin, 1993, HarperCollins

[Yes, there really is a shortbread recipe coming. Just could not bring
myself to omit Laurie's marvelous butter commentary...]

"Years and years and years ago, when people still served rib roast without batting
an eye and before the surgeon general had determined that cigarettes were bad for
you, my mother would make butter balls. She took very cold pats of butter and
rolled them between two flat, ridged wooden paddles that had been chilled in the freezer beforehand – these paddles used to appear before dinner parties to fancy
up the butter – working them until they became little balls, with crosshatched
surfaces. Then, she made a hole in each ball, sprinkled in a pinch of sugar and
a drop of lemon juice, and put the balls in the fridge. Later, my sister and I were
allowed to eat the butter balls as a treat, and, believe me, they were wonderful.
There is nothing like butter. As Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, says, it is a sauce in itself and needs no embellishments. I cannot think of anything butter does not render more delicious, and I have never met anyone who doesn’t love butter, although many people have given it up for reasons of health.
Unfortunately, no substitute for it exists. Father Robert Farrar Capon, in his
noble book, The Supper of the Lamb, suggests that, if you are going to refrain
from butter, you ought not con yourself into accepting some nasty imitation. He
feels people ought to use good-quality olive oil and, once in a while, allow a
measure of real, true, pure butter. This is extremely sensible advice.
There are, as we know, two kinds of butter: salted and sweet. The salted is a hangover from the days before refrigeration, when people salted their butter to
keep it from going bad, and it is now part of the American palate. I myself prefer sweet, and, even in the days when I was a salt addict, I used to spread my bread
with sweet butter and sprinkle salt on top. When people asked why I didn’t simply
buy salted butter, I pointed out that sweet butter – even with a little salt on top –
has a totally different flavor. Semolina bread, sweet butter, and a little sea salt
is a combination I would happily walk over hot coals for.
There is also something called ‘whipped’ butter, a substance I have never understood unless one likes a quantity of air in one’s food. Apparently this stuff spreads better, but I am of the school that, except in the dog days of summer,
believes in leaving butter out. I hate to put it in the fridge, where it often
becomes what my mother used to call ‘ice-boxy’. If you leave it out, it stays nice
and spreadable; furthermore, it is my belief that the taste of things at room temperature is their true taste.
Luckily, you can find ways around a life without butter. Place by your night table some books on Mediterranean or Chinese cooking, two of the many cuisines that
do not use butter. Make sure the bread you buy is sensational: Really good bread needs nothing at all, which comes as a shock to people who feel that a piece of
bread is the mere vehicle for a large slab of butter. If you don’t live near a
wonderful bakery, find one from which to mail-order, or take up baking. You
can buy or make some really wonderful jam and some first-rate organic peanut
butter. You might also treat yourself to a bottle of rich, green, fruity extra-
virgin olive oil…
…After you have been a very good person for a very long time and are as thin as
a bean, you may decide to fall briefly into sin. You will want something simple
and elegant that cannot be made without butter. There is only one thing that
will do: shortbread.
I would rather eat shortbread than any cake or cookie in the world. I would
turn my back on a chocolate truffle or a banana split for one piece of crisp,
melting shortbread. It is the essence of butter. Although you can fancy short-
bread up by serving it with vanilla ice cream or turning it into cookies with raspberry jam or messing around and putting toasted walnuts or ginger in it –
the pure, plain thing is a wonder in itself. A child can make it, and often
shortbread is the first thing children learn to bake.
 

Classic Shortbread

1. Cream 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter with 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar.
Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
2. Work in 3/4 cup all-purpose flour sifted with 1/4 cup rice flour, 1/8 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. (Classic Scottish recipes
use rice flour to give the shortbread a slightly grainy crispness that is very delicious. You can find rice flour at specialty food shops and natural food stores. However, if an extra stop is not on your shopping agenda, you
may eliminate the rice flour and use 1 cup all-purpose flour.)
3. Pat the dough into an 8-inch circle on an ungreased cookie sheet. This recipe gives you a very soft, delicate dough, so be patient with it. Before baking, score the dough, making 6 wedges, and mark the edge with the
tines of a fork.
4. Bake the shortbread in a preheated 375-degree F oven for about 20 minutes, or until the edge is golden brown.
5. While the shortbread is still warm, cut it into the wedges with a
sharp knife.
 

There you have it. A true, no-fault, idiot-proof dessert, beloved by adult and
children (animals often go for it, too). And once a year, as a special reward,
there is no better use for a quarter pound of butter."
 

Featured Archive Recipes:
Laurie Colwin on Gingerbread
Charleston Shortbread Cookies
NOLA's Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies
Favorite Chocolate Nut Shortbread
 

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