Bake-off X

I wish I could tell you all that yesterday's bake-off at work was reminiscent of my first bake-off back in September. Bake-off is a tradition at my place of employment; winners not only get the glory of victory, they also get the privilege of wearing the bake-off tiara. With the upcoming division holiday party this Wednesday, the pressure of winning and getting to wear the tiara to the event was suffocating.

At the previous bake-off, I creamed the competition with an epic-ly delicious coffee cake (seriously, I had a record victory in bake-off history). Being that my grandmother was born in Scotland, I felt reasonably confident about the chosen baked good: shortbread. My good-natured competitor had informed me that she was going to produce a variation on plain shortbread and even sent me an article with possible additional ingredients to include. But my mind had already been made up. I would recreate lavender shortbread I had made once before to infinite praise (mostly from my mother).

Unfortunately, the morning of bake-off presented some obstacles. First, I had failed to obtain unsalted butter the day before. I usually am not picky about the butter I use (who doesn't love salt), but when it comes to something as consequential as bake-off, I don't mess around. Well, here was my first error. I scrounged up one stick of unsalted butter, and settled for a second stick of salted. Next, I popped into the backyard to pick some lavender, only to find that all the lavender was gray, shriveled, and scentless. My first instinct was to eliminate the lavender entirely. Upon reevaluation, though, I realized that the cookies would look awfully plain without anything making them stand out. Presentation is 25-90% of the battle in bake-off. So I rounded up some reasonably presentable flowers and proceeded to shortbreading.

Fickle Lavender Shortbread

* 2 cups flour
* 1/2 cup corn starch
* 1 cup butter (unsalted is probably the way to go)
* 2/3 cup sugar
* pinch salt
* 16 pieces of lavender for the top

Mix flour, salt, cornstarch and sugar in a bowl. Cut butter into cubes then crumble into the mixture (you can use a pastry cutter or knives if you are fancy and apparently if you are serious about winning bake-off).

Put half the dough into a round cake tin (8-9 inches, I believe), and the other half in another tin of the same size. Cut each batch into 8 triangles (this part was slightly tricky, as my dough was not well mixed enough at this point and the top was too floury for good slicing. This did not prove too problematic (or so I thought), as they are easy enough to cut once finished baking). Press a pieces of lavender into each wedge. Place in refrigerator while the oven preheats to 325˚. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until slightly browned on top. Once finished baking, cut the cookies into triangles again, and allow them to cool.

At this point in the process, the shortbread were still looking like winners to me. The lavender added a little something special and made them less bland than plain shortbread, and the buttery-sugary smell the overpowered my kitchen promised me world domination.

I allowed them to cool for a few hours, making sure to taste one before proceeding to work. They were on the soft side for shortbread, but otherwise buttery and just sweet enough.














When the judging began, though, my confidence plunged. Although everyone kept repeating that both were delicious, no one could figure out what the thing in the middle was. One lab member added that it looked like a crushed grasshopper. Yum.

Anyway, at the end of it all, each person ranked each shortbread out of 10 points. The final scores were 48 (me) and 49 (the other one). Based on the commentary, I was happy to have lost by such a small margin. Still, in bake-off, as in life, losing is losing. Nonetheless, I highly recommend these cookies for guests or presents or yourself or your mom, just maybe not for bake-off.