Every year for as long as I can remember, the weekend preceding the 14th was designated for Valentine baking. My daughter and I make up this stupendous dough (ancient family recipe for shortbread..no not our family but it's been so long that it feels like ours now!!)We double an already ample recipe and then refrigerate the mass of buttery fragrant dough. When we are geared up and ready to get busy, we flour up the work surface and the rolling begins. The dough is now perfectly thin and pliant, ready to be cut with the special once a year heart shaped cutter. The hearts are carefully placed on the cookie sheet and then we begin the jamming. Only sour cherry jam will do and only a dab in the centre of each heart to avoid filling overkill. More rolling and cutting results in the heart cookie toppers and then we are done; but that is only the first batch! We repeat the process until all the dough is done and aside from sneaking tastes in between baking shifts, the entire process takes about 4-5 hrs, time so well spent when all is said and done and we have a huge pile of heart shaped jam sandwich shortbread cookies. Only then do we dare to focus on the other aspects of the 14th. We seek out the cards, decide on the chocolate component (crucial) and divvy up the fruits of our labour. When my daughter was young, I did the dough and the rolling, but now that I am older, she doughs and rolls while I jam. This then is a true example of passing the torch when the time is right. The time is clearly right and there is no remorse on my part because Amanda is a true and excellent baker while her mom.... not so much.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment