Comfort Baking
By: Jodi Liano
Tags: Recipe, Baking, Cookies, Cooking

Nick Malgieri’s Real Scottish Shortbread

Let’s be honest, it’s been a week. I don’t really know what day it is, what time it is, or what how to wrap my arms around all that needs to get done. I’ve melted down (and surely will again) and have also focused, eagle-eyed, on the steps necessary to keep SFCS forging ahead to the time when we can finally all be back in the kitchen again, soon. I can’t wait for that day.

I’ve been checking on my people, some close and some far away. Facetime happy hour with my long-distance girlfriends has saved me and I’m not sure why it took this crisis to make that happen. I’ve had chats, driveways apart, with my neighbors and wore gloves to the market to buy groceries for people who couldn’t.

I reached out to my friend Nick Malgieri to make sure all was okay with him in New York, and, if I’m honest, to see what he was baking. Turns out he has mostly been gardening so it took a bit of prodding to find out what the rest of us should be comfort baking. He penned a note about two of his favorite recipes, easy for every level of cook and made with ingredients no one is wrestling over at the store.

One of the recipes, his Supernatural Brownies, are hands-down the best brownies you will ever eat. I never knew the happy accident that created these but the story made me smile. I have made them more times than I can count and have no doubt they will be in my quarantine rotation. He promised me he’d be posting the recipe here soon.

The other was for a classic Scottish Shortbread. With 5 ingredients, this no-fuss cookie was ideal for today. I made the dough in about the same amount of time it took for Spotify to play the first four songs of Green by R.E.M. (digging deep these days).

They’re perfect. The very soft butter gets paddled with sugar for a solid 5 minutes — this helps eliminate crunchy bits of sugar and aerates the dough just a little bit. A healthy pinch of salt and dash of vanilla go in, then you fold the flour in by hand, which keeps the cookies tender. I patted my dough between sheets of parchment and went over them once with a pin just to get an even thickness of just over 1/4-inch. While the oven preheated I threw the cut cookies into the fridge to make sure the butter was cold when I baked them (helps the cookies hold their shape). After a 15 minute bake, I had exactly the cookie I’d hoped for, the kitchen smelled incredible, and I realized I’d exhaled, unclenched, and relaxed.

Whatever you’re doing to keep yourself well and healthy right now is critically important. If getting into the kitchen will help, give these a shot. You’ll be glad you did.

Nick Malgieri’s Scottish Shortbread

makes about two dozen 2 to 2 1/2-inch round cookies

1/2 pound unsalted butter very soft

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cookie sheets or jellyroll pans lined with parchment, sil-pats, or foil

You already have all this, right?

Set racks in the middle and upper thirds of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.

Beat the butter and sugar with the paddle in an electric mixer until very soft and light, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the salt and vanilla and beat briefly to combine.