Festive baking time

Notes from cook Millie Thomas

For as long as I can remember, I have baked Christmas shortbread.

Throughout the year, I save jars for the annual bake when I spend a day or two creating festively shaped shortbread biscuits for friends, family and colleagues. You could say I know my way around a biscuit. This is thanks to my late grandmother, Luffy, who always baked them when I visited her in New Zealand.

So, it didn’t take a whole lot of convincing for me to try my hand at baking something festive from the Library’s collection, and it was entirely unsurprising that the recipe I picked out was shortbread. 

It came from The Keeyuga Cookery Book by Henrietta C McGowan, published in 1911. Despite its vibrant cover, the no-nonsense recipes are straight to the point; there are no details when it comes to method, and certainly no handy tips or tricks. I will admit, though, it’s refreshing to not have to trawl through a long-winded story blog to get to the recipe!

The first thing I noticed about McGowan’s recipe was the egg yolk. While initially confusing, the reason for it became clear when I saw the flour-to-butter ratio. I can only speculate that the rather large amount of flour might be to do with ingredient availability at the time, but it made for a drier dough than I am used to. 

While I was tempted to pull out my usual Kenwood mixer to handle the kneading, the recipe specifically called for mixing by hand. So, I begrudgingly stuck my whole hand into the greasy butter and started working!

What I did do differently was to work the butter and sugar together first, before adding the flour (sifted of course) and yolk. Unless you’re baking a cheesecake, it’s generally a good idea to not throw everything together at once. I also swapped regular sugar for icing sugar for no other reason than I had so much of it on hand!

As I expected, the dough turned out quite dry and crumbly. A rolling pin wasn’t going to be effective so, with a little persistence, I combined the mixture one small ball at a time and spread it thin by thumping it down with my fist. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shapes kept together!

The recipe called for a ‘moderate oven’. This surely speaks to the amount of knowledge that is assumed, but as a baker it makes sense. Every oven is different; 200 degrees in an electric oven is going to be hotter than 200 degrees in a gas oven, and even then there’s room for variation. My general philosophy is that a little less heat, and a little less time, is never going to hurt. If the recipe calls for 30 minutes at 150 degrees, I’ll be doing 20 minutes at 140 degrees. I am happy to report that for my parents’ Miele oven, 18 minutes at 140 degrees was optimal!

They might not have quite the melting moment quality of Luffy’s recipe, but I’m pleased to say that the biscuits came out rather well. A coarser texture, but still sweet and moreish!

This story appears in Openbook summer 2022.