TWD - Hungarian Shortbread

A beautiful treat perfect for a Spring afternoon with a cup of tea.

I've been really busy in the kitchen lately developing a chicken salad recipe to use for a special young woman's wedding shower and making homemade ice cream with all the toppings for an extended family gathering, both of which you can read about later, so Tuesday surprised me again.

Take a deep breath!  Relax.  You can do it.  And I did...

As we continue our Tuesdays with Dorie adventure our project for today is Hungarian Shortbread found on page 327 of the book or on the blogs of our hostesses Lynette of 1smallkitchen and Cher of The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler….  This was a relatively easy recipe and it was made even easier because my procrastination allowed me to benefit from the tips of the early starters (I'll share those in a bit later).

This recipe had two parts, both of which could be made the day before (or earlier) if desired.  The first part was the rhubarb filling.  I was pretty excited about this because I haven't had much experience with rhubarb.

You simply cut it up...

add sugar, water and a vanilla bean

and simmer until it all "melts".  Remove the vanilla bean and you have your rhubarb jam.

The second part is a shortbread dough.  It is put together in the typical way

with the standard ingredients,

divided into two parts,

and shaped into logs and put in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

The special "tricks" that I learned by waiting until a lot of the others in the group had already tried the recipe kick in at the next step.

Line the pan with parchment
(I only made a half recipe)

Use a food processor to grate the dough
(grating the dough was a new technique
to me)

Add the grated dough to the pan.
Push into the corners and lightly pat
into place.  Pre-bake the bottom layer for
about 10 minutes so it won't be soggy.

Spread the pretty red rhubarb jam onto
the bottom layer then add the second half
of the shortbread spreading as before.  Bake
for about 30 minutes more.

Dust heavily with powdered sugar.
Let cool and you are ready to enjoy.

Remove your lightly browned dessert.

This was an interesting and delicious recipe.  I've made shortbread before but never like this.  It will certainly be one that I will repeat with possible variations in the filling.  The leftover rhubarb jam that I made is delicious on toast.  Hope you enjoyed my experience enough to get out the utensils and get busy baking!!!