Apricot Vanilla Bean Shortbread Bars: New Year's Resolutions

For HYK who got me excited to make these.

I don't know what it is, but I'm not into making New Year's resolutions.  I have a vague recollection of being asked to by Parents when I was younger, but I can't recall the last time I made them.  Perhaps I am opposed to change.  Maybe it's because I think I'm perfect just the way I am, or perhaps it's just that I don't have time to think about it.  But I thought this year, I might want to have a ponder on a few changes for this upcoming new, as a way to encourage my personal growth and enlightenment.  This is my list.

1.  Try and remember to go to the bathroom.
It struck me that I rarely go to the bathroom.  I'm always 5 seconds away from peeing in my pants.  Mostly it's because I find myself running around at insane speeds that I can't possibly stop in front of the toilet.  But when I evaluate, I think that perhaps Son would be more willing to go if I went more often.

2.  Yell less.
I yell a lot.  Son and Daughters hear me bellowing from all ends of the house sometimes in frustration, sometimes commands, but a lot of yells.  I read an article that said that yelling is the new spanking which did not reassure me.  I don't want to be "verbally spanking" my kids...if I want to spank - well let's just say there is other ways for satisfaction on that front.

3. Be more physically affectionate with Son and Daughters.
I like to have a 1 foot perimeter around me where Son and Daughter are concerned.  I'm not all that keen on having them sit on me, touch me, grab me, pinch me, hug me, hold on to me, choke me, but I think these are all ways that they are trying to connect with me.  Mostly I want some space from them but I know that they just want more physical affection from me.  They don't necessarily equate the food I give them as a form of love. They need it in concrete physical forms and I'm going to try giving it.  At least 5 or 6 minutes a day.

4.  Try not to be so competitive.
I've found myself trying to lap the guy in the swimming pool when I do my swimming and I easily lap him. It gives me such a pure feeling of glee and satisfaction when I do so, which leads me to believe that something is a bit wrong with me and I shouldn't react that way.  I enjoy kicking the butt of someone in the water?  WHY?  I don't know, I just do.

The following bar cookie recipe is my last hurrah into competitiveness.  I was driven to make this because after a conversation with friend HYK, who told me that at her church's potluck these were the thing that people were gushing about...well - you know the rest.  I wanted to know what the fuss was about, so I decided to make it.  I tweaked the recipe and tried to simplify it, but there are two pieces of equipment I highly recommend that you have if you plan on making this - and without both, I'm not sure it is worth it.

1.  Mixer
2.  Food processor














I personally HATE taking out an additional piece of equipment to make something,.  This cookie relies on a special technique to create a lighter, more tender crust - grated dough.  It sounds crazy I know, but it makes sense - grating the dough much like you would some cheese, lightens the denseness of shortbread providing extra lift and making it lovely and tender.  When making it, I decided that I would just hand grate the frozen dough and began doing it; in the middle Mother-in-law walked by and offered to help me do it.  I said. "Oh no, it's too hard to do."  She muttered, "Looks like it is too hard for you as well."  With that comment I dragged my food processor out, put the grating disk in and whizzed through all the lumps of dough in under 5 minutes.  (I think hand grating it would have taken me over 30.)  Lesson learned.  Definitely use the food processor to make these wonderfully fantastic cookies.  The end result - something so wonderfully tender, buttery, delicious and different.  Oh so good, and so wonderful!  As it is made in a 9X13 pan, you just have the one pan to bake and then you have a whole lot of cookies ready.

My first attempt with this tool - slow and definitely not fun.

Bringing out the big guns...and oh what a difference.

Apricot Vanilla Bean Shortbread Bars
Adapted from Butter Sugar Flour Eggs by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto and Julie Moskin

Makes 32 bars

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
4 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, split, and seeds scraped out
2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup apricot jam, at room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Cream the butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until soft and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and the inside of a vanilla bean and mix well.

Whisk the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the butter and egg yolk mixture and mix just until incorporated and the dough starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and form into four balls, small enough to fit into your food processor tube.  (Doing smaller portions for the freezer means that the next day you won't be trying to cut chunks of dough small enough to fit into your food processor.)  Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and freeze at least 2 hours or overnight (or as long as a month, if you like).

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Remove two small balls of dough  from the freezer and coarsely grate it by hand or with the grating disk in a food processor into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan lined with parchment or a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Make sure the surface is covered evenly with shreds of dough.

With the back of a spoon or a flexible spatula, spread the jam over the surface.  Another technique is to put the jam in a plastic bag and cut the corner and squeeze all over the shreds of dough.  For found the squeezing jam technique slightly easier but not much.  Remove the remaining dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it over the entire surface.  DO NOT PRESS DOWN.

Bake until lightly golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes.

As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, dust with confectioners' sugar. Cool on a wire rack, then cut in the pan with a serrated knife.

Printable recipe

These were a part of my Christmas cookie plate.  (Santa also got a few cookies.)

The vanilla beans I like...customer service is very good and the beans ship very quickly.