Tuesday, May 1, 2012

TWD - Hungarian Shortbread

I was actually really excited for this months first recipe, Hungarian Shortbread.  Why?  Well I'm an Irish girl and I loooove shortbread ;)  Ok so I am not actually Irish, but I'm Australian and that is almost the same thing! :) 

Now when my daughter saw that it had Rhubarb Jam she was really excited, she loves her great grandmother's rhubarb and strawberry jam and was looking forward to trying this. 

I decided to make the jam the day before I made the shortbread, just to limit the time I needed to spend in the kitchen.  With a toddler helper it can be a bit much to complete an entire recipe all at once :)  We found some fresh rhubarb at Whole Foods for the jam and with the recipe being super simple I was able to get that made in no time.

Here is the finished jam which I popped in the fridge overnight.  It tasted really good by the way.  Not that I sampled it or anything ;) 



No since I am avoiding wheat for a few months I was a bit stressed on how to make this gluten free, on a trip to whole foods I found this flour


It's a bit pricey but I wasn't confident enough to make my own blend of flours just yet, I will get there.  I have bookmarked a gluten free shortbread recipe to make another time.  It looks divine and I am looking forward to making my own blend of gluten free flour.  This packaged flour worked really well though and I am confident that I can use it in the future when converting a recipe to be gluten free. 

I am also avoiding egg yolks, so I was going to go all out and use this



but I'm a wimp and chickened out and used this instead


since I am only avoiding egg yolks and this is made with just whites.  I will get there ;)

The dough came together nice and quickly, the hardest part was grating the dough into the baking dish.  It started to get soft which made it challenging but it wasn't too bad.  That would be my only hesitation on remaking the dough, we liked everything about it but I didn't love grating the dough.  That is my only complaint though, it really was delicious and would really compliment a cup of tea nicely!




I hope you enjoyed it as much as my family did.  If you don't own Baking with Julia yet, go and buy it!  This recipe is on page 327-8 and is definitely worth a try.  If you would like the recipe please visit our hosts for this week Cher of  The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler... and Lynette of 1smallkitchen or if you would like to see how everyone else did on this baking challenge visit here.

Thanks for visiting!  Enjoy.






10 comments:

  1. aren't you lucky that you get these substitutes to make recipes gluten free.. if only we got these in India!!! My family enjoyed it.. but I did find the butter excessive but thats hwat made it soo good!!

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    1. I agree, the butter did make it oh so good :)

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  2. You are so good!
    It must be quite difficult to use so many substitutions and still have a great shortbread...

    The little changes I've made allowed me to save on fat and Kcal and was still delicious!

    Greetings from Switzerland.

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    1. When I saw it used an entire pound of butter I considered making it with all purpose flour so I wouldn't be tempted. I love shortbread though so I couldn't do that to myself :) Luckily I have a big family and the kids have good metabolisms ;)

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  3. Your shortbread looks beautiful! I'm glad it turned out well for you with your substitutions.

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    1. Thank you. I was really happy with how it turned out, I hope the next recipe goes as well :)

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  4. The shortbread looks really great! I do a bit of GF baking and my fave all purpose mix is from King Arthur. It seems to be the least gritty. They have lots of great revipes on their site as well.

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    1. Ah I almost bought the King Arthur flour but I'd already mentally committed to the other brand. I will definitely try the KA next time though, thanks for the recommendation!

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  5. Wow, way to take a leap and make it work :-) The KAF blend is one of the nicest GF A-P mixes that I have tried - definitely give it a shot.
    It all looks lovely. Great job!

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  6. Definitely sounds like a challenge to work with all you are replacing. Good thing you didn't have to replace the butter too! The look just lovely!

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