Tuesdays With Dorie: Hungarian Shortbread

Hungarian Shortbread

The latest recipe in our journey through Baking With Julia is Hungarian Shortbread, which featured contributing baker Gale Gand. Of all the recipes in the book, this is one of a handful that had caught my eye when I first purchased the book, although I never did quite get around to making it.

The technique is fascinating. You make a big batch of shortbread dough (unusual in that it contains egg yolks), chill it, then shred half the dough into the baking pan, top it with jam, then shred the rest of the dough on top of the jam. I managed to survive the shredding process pretty well, without shredding too much of my hands and fingers. In the book, the recipe calls for a homemade rhubarb jam. As I was unable to find rhubarb in any local store, I ended up using some Smuckers apricot jam. When the shortbread is right out of the oven, it's coated liberally with powdered sugar. I ended up giving it an additional dousing after it had cooled down as well.

After I divided up my batch of Hungarian Shortbread, I checked in to the TWD discussion of the recipe and discovered two things:
1. I wasn't the only one who had a somewhat goopy center to their shortbread. If I'd checked in ahead of time, I'd have known that I should have partially baked the bottom crust, even though the recipe doesn't say you should.
2. I should check the discussion thread before I bake anything henceforth in this project.

In the end, despite the soft center pieces, the shortbread was utterly edible. I cut it into fairly small pieces, which was a good decision as this baked item is quite sweet. I'll definitely try this again, and the next time I do, I will partially bake the bottom crust first.