Category: Uncategorized

This was another recipe that I probably would not have made unless I was going through the entire cookbook. A digestive seems distinctly British. It also contains Bran, which is not only a game of thrones character but also a dry, flaky product that can be mixed in with a dough to make it more … dry?

This “savory” digestive contains less sugar and additional salt and spices (garam masala) than the sweet version. At least it would have, except I forgot to add it and ended up sprinkling it on just before popping it into the oven. I mixed in the salt and garam masala in the second batch and ended up with two distinct bakes. If I had actually added the ingredients listed in the recipe this would have been easy but following instructions is hard.

Altogether, the flavor of these was great, lightly sweet-salty (batch 1 was better) and perfect for spreading some goat cheese on top. 7 out of 10 arbitrary units of measurement. Lightly flaky with a good crisp break, but strong enough to hold up to spreading some goat cheese on top. 8 out of 10. Appearance could have been better though, the two batches were different thicknesses, but overall they were rather uniform and looked pleasantly cracker-y. 5 out of 10. I think overall this was pretty good and would make them again.

As a side note, you’ve probably noticed some oddly noodle-y bread things at the top of the picture. We shall not speak of those…though “Bread Week” is going to be interesting.

The recipe looks
Unlike most shortbread I’ve seen
What am I making?

I candied ginger.
I could not find it at store.
So boiled it for hours.

Next, chopped up the root,
mixed it with oats and I baked.
What now, should I taste?

Gingery flavor,
but alas, texture of sand.
With frosting better.

Perhaps not the best
Linda Collister I ask,
“Why include this one?”

The first recipe in the book is for pecan shorties. In the picture accompanying the recipe, they are pale little round things. Half of them have a thick swirl of chocolate on top, haphazardly drizzled all over the counter. I have never encountered this cookie in the wild. It has six ingredients (why no eggs?). First impressions? This seems super-easy. Mix, bake, make a mess with chocolate.

Timeline. Starting this at 5 PM. I can tell my wife does not believe I will be done in time for her to make dinner at 6. I feel pretty confident.

5:15 PM. Apparently icing sugar = powdered sugar.

5:30 PM. I’ve roasted pecans and whipped butter so that it looks like mayonnaise.

5:35 PM. I forgot to sift the powdered sugar. So many clumps…

5:40 PM. I have destroyed the clumps, but entered a somewhat existential realm trying to determine what “light and fluffy” and “fairly coarsely chopped” means.

5:52 PM. I have a “firm dough”. I realize the oven was turned off after I roasted the pecans.

6:00 PM. First batch in……..Ok, ok I see the time…….

6:15 PM. First batch out. They are pretty puffy looking and pale. I thought they would be more flat. I flattened the second batch more. I put the first batch back in.

6:17 PM. Now the first batch is done. Not sure where the time has gone. May have been abducted by aliens.

6:45 PM. Both batches done now. Making a double boiler for melting chocolate. Poured wine for wife.

7:00 PM. They are done! Somehow I used a lot of different bowls even though this recipe had only a few ingredients.

Final Judgement. Appearance — Ok. Batch 2 looks more like the picture than batch one. They are totally different in shape, though both are equally golden on the edges. The chocolate is a little clunky but set nice with a good shine. Texture — Good. Crispy, tender, even distribution of pecans. Flavor — Great. Can’t go wrong with nuts and chocolate. Not overly sweet.

Overall? I’ll arbitrarily rate this 5 out of 10. This probably shouldn’t have taken 2 hours to complete, and they could have looked more appetizing. Not sure if I would share these with neighbors unless they looked a little more uniform and the chocolate coating was less smudgy.