Shortbread: You can have Scotch, I'll take the shortbread

ooo It's been so long (that was a squeal)! I'm sure the seasoned bloggers would glare with disapproving-cyber-eyes at me for skipping so many days...or is it weeks? Apologies! I have SO many new things to share - Santa brought me something that will be my new bf from now on, can you guess?... but I'm going to try to maintain a bit of excitement by only blogging a bit about my adventures in baking each time. I do feel really sad that Christmas over so I will begin to make up random holidays and reasons for baking. Is it really another year away?
I had a full week of planning and baking (I made gift boxes for some of my best friends as well as family friends!!) - I honestly lost sleep from the whole thing! But it ended up being really fun and it was great being able to gift my loved ones with something I spent a lot of time on. Made with love...aww... I'll blog ALL about that excitement soon, but FIRST - before I left for home, I made a batch of shortbread cookies that I dipped in dark chocolate. They came out looking really fantastic, with the chocolate hardening/drying very smoothly. That might be the key to professional-looking cookies, stuff like "dipped chocolate" or a dust of confectioners sugar. So I passed on the shortbread to my regular test subjects, and they were sort of rejected = ( but at least I have learned that Asians don't really like that sort of consistency or flavor. Or perhaps the butter I regularly use just isn't pure or fragrant enough? Maybe I should invest in a few moo-cows and begin churning my own butter in my cozy munchkin kitchen - actually I have churned my own butter before, in fifth grade, we were learning about the colonists and dipped our own candle sticks, made butter, learned simple embroidery.

Simple Shortbread Dipped in Dark Chocolate (...when I rediscovered my extreme impatience for butter, it takes light-years to soften)

1 cup unsalted butter (two sticks)
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 large ziplock bag

Pre-heat to 149C

1. Wait for the butter to soften if you're like me and didn't plan ahead to bake.
2. Steps to soften: cut into pieces cut into smaller pieces, mash and smoosh with a knife - fork - aaaaanything you can get your hands on. At this point, if you're like me, you're wishing you were an X-Man so you would use your eyes to will the butter to soften to a point at which it will cream well with the sugar - oh, did I forget to mention? That's the goal. To cream the two ladies. My last resort = placing the metal bowl on my lap -> hoping that my 5th grade science knowledge is correct -> heat rises -> my thighs are warm -> warmth from thighs rise to the butter -> A+
   
3. Pat yourself on the back, that was hard work. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.
4. When creamed, add in vanilla. Continue to mix.
   
5. How does is smell? Like love?
6. In another bowl, sift together flour and salt.
7. Mix flour mixture into the Love (butter & sugar)
   
8. This part is cool, take the dough and place it in a plastic ziplock bag. Push the dough into the corners of the bag, lifting the plastic occasionally to make sure there are no creases. Press around so the dough forms the shape of the baggie and it is around 1 cm in thickness
9. Place in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
10. After around 10-15 minutes of waiting, during which you have dutifully washed up all the dirty dishes (a clean kitchen is a happy kitchen, kids!), take the dough out and cut the dough out of the baggie. Was that magic? Do you now have a perfectly rectangular piece of shortbread dough that you didn't even have to measure? My my my, I think you do!
11. Place on cookie sheet and mark off squares or rectangles just on the surface of the dough. Use a fork to poke pretty holes so you can look professional and impress your test subjects.
    
12. Place in oven for around 40 minutes or until slightly browned
13. Cut the cookies into the squares/rectangles you marked when they are still warm and soft
14. While waiting for them to cool off, melt some dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl with 30 second intervals, stirring between each 30 second time period. Dip Dip Dip!

P.S. currently I have a bowl of eggs aging on the counter. It's all kinds of grossness (the French might be immune to germs) but after exhaustive research on the art of Macaron making - and by exhaustive, I mean it: I watched 3-4 French youtube videos (oui) to observe the are of the folding as well as the consistency the batter should hold before piping onto the sheet...etc. AND then I read a whole bunch of other wonderful blogs, which I will cite, that recorded their adventures and misadventures - I will just follow the yellow brick road that has been paved by many other courageous bloggers before me and report back to all of you after wards. Macarons and bread-making are two things I WILL conquer. That was a long P.S.