Well, May has crept up on us quickly, and the weather has asserted that it is in fact autumn. It is cool, often grey during the day, and the leaves have turned delightful shades of red and gold before they tumble to the ground and turn brown. Thankfully, the really cold weather has not yet set in, so I can reconcile myself to getting up in the semi-darkness as it is really not too bad outside.
It is also the first Baking with Julia for this month, hosted by Lynette of 1 Small Kitchen and Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler, and our recipe is Hungarian Shortbread. This ain't diet food, with lots and lots of butter involved, but it is practically lean compared with our next recipe, Pecan Sticky Buns. Hungarian Shortbread is a buttery shortbread encasing a layer of jam (in my case, apricot). The shortbread is dredged with icing sugar immediately after baking, which forms a crackly, custard-like top on the shortbread.
I read someone else who made this thought that grating the frozen pastry was an unnecessary faff so they did it all in the food processor. I tended to agree with them and did the same, skipping the resting time in the fridge. My shortbread seemed just fine, despite the short shrift it got from me in the resting department.
The verdict on this recipe - tastes delicious (as well it might with all that butter and sugar), but is terribly unkind in the calories department. However, I guess this group is not about conserving calories, so no more peeps out of me on that count - until the next recipe (yikes).
