Celebrating 90 Years!
When Marie celebrated her 90th birthday, she had to have something elegant and delicious to mark the occasion. Her favorite color is mauve, so the cookies, of course, had to be mauve! And Marie is a truly great lady, so they also had to be elegant. Each of these wedge-shaped cookies says “You are special.” I am so fortunate to have this wonderful and wise woman as a friend. Her tastes leans toward something less sweet so the cookie itself is my buttery melt-in-your-mouth shortbread recipe. This is Marie’s favorite cookie.
“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” Frank Lloyd Wright
These cookies were taste-tested and family-approved. The shortbread cookie with the white-chocolate dough made for a wonderful flavor combination. Some comments included:
- “The most delicious cookies I’ve ever eaten!”
- “More, please.”
- “They look like jewels.”
Cookie specifics
These cookies can be made in any shape, but for this special occasion I chose wedges for added elegance and a touch of whimsy. I also made them with my favorite shortbread recipe because it’s not too sweet but full of buttery flavor. It’s Marie’s favorite cookie.
Wedges & Plaques
Pie wedge shapes with fluted edges and fancy plaques for the elegant monograms were the shapes of choice for these celebration cookies. Other shapes can be used, of course, but the wedges made for a nice surprise.
Sizes
The wedge-shaped mold includes six different patterns and each wedge measures 2½ at its widest end and 2 inches to the point. It takes 6 wedges to make a perfect cookie circle. 2½ to 3 inches is my favorite size for decorating and eating!
Greetings & Monograms
square, circle, rectangle, triangle, free-form...numerous plaque shapes, plus straight, fluted, and zig-zag edges
My Own (New) Family Recipe
This Shortbread recipe was developed over several months in my quest to duplicate the taste and texture of a shortbread cookie from a now-closed bakery in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Mauve Cookies
Since Marie is partial to shortbread, that’s what I used to make these beautiful bites. Because shortbread has very few ingredients, each one must be the best you can buy. I always use Irish butter for shortbread because of its rich taste and higher butterfat content (at least 82%). I also use very fine Baker’s sugar because of its texture and homemade pure vanilla extract because I know exactly what’s in it!
Shortbread: flour, butter, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, salt
Icing & Decorative Embellishments
Royal Icing: confectioner’s sugar, egg whites, corn syrup, pure vanilla extract or almond extract, cream of tartar, food coloring
Chocolate “Dough”: corn syrup plus delicate white chocolate
Homemade Fondant: sugar, corn syrup, cornstarch, gelatin, water, vanilla extract
Box or Bag?
Box. Cookies were packaged in a white cardboard bakery box with a clear window on top that makes the contents visible to anyone who wanted to peek! I was able to fit 18 cookies into each box.
Bags. I placed one of the plaques into a clear food-safe bag, secured with a twist tie as a “sample” so that my friend could try one before the party began.
What I’ve learned...
These cookies were made with the best ingredients I could find and baked in a small batch of two dozen. I’ve experimented with less expensive ingredients, but have come to the conclusion that flavor is best when I use the best. Why spend all this time baking and decorating if taste and texture are just so-so? Decorating the cookies takes time, but it’s an enjoyable process for me and I know that those who receive them appreciate that. Life is just better when you can share something you love with someone you love. Don’t you agree?
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