Quick, who was your most fun grandparent? I bet you thought of one.
For me, I have two. One was my mother’s mother. She was great. When my brother and I would visit, there was always fun things planned. Visits to amusement parks. Board games. Golfing. Even when we would do more mundane things, she made them fun.
My other one was my father’s father. When I was young he had a pickup truck. My brother and cousins and I would pile into the back and he would drive around town. When no one else was near, he would purposefully drift across the yellow line and on the wrong side. The whole truck bed full of kids would first freak out and then fall into uncontrollable glee. He was the “two lane trucker”. When I would visit, this man would wake me in the morning blaring the fight song of The Ohio State University. How could I not love that?
We also had a bond over desserts. After a long summer day of playing, I knew I could count on him dishing mountains of ice cream and covering it with rivers of chocolate (Hershey’s syrup from the can). While I have a number of recipes from each of my grandmothers, I have only one that I credit to him. It is a basic shortbread recipe.
I added some chocolate chips to his recipe. I know he’d approve.
Shortbread is a very simple item to bake.
Mix the batter.
Spread it in the pan.
Open it up with many, many stabbings of a fork.
Out of the oven.
Shortbread is simply a delivery mechanism for eating butter. While that sounds kinda bad, it is really, really goooood!
Shortbread
Prep Time:Â 0 hr 0 min |Â Cook Time:Â 55 mins |Â Makes:Â 1 serving |Â Difficulty:Â Easy
Ingredients:
- 1 lb butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 1/2 cups flour
- Salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Put butter in microwave safe bowl and microwave 30-45 seconds to soften but not melt.
Mix with sugar and 2 cups of flour. Add a pinch of salt. Mix in 2 cups of flour and add another pinch of salt. Knead in 1/2 cup of flour.
Spread evenly in 1″x9″x13″ aluminum pan and pierce with fork every 1/2 inch.
Bake for 55 minutes.
Place on cooling rack and after 1/2 hour cut into pieces with a sharp knife.
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
Love these memories! I don’t think he even ever thought of baking til Grandma died. I think this is something his mother made, not Grandma, and he was so proud to have ‘perfected’ it! He would never give me the recipe, but Aunt Ellie managed to get it from him and passed it along, you must’ve been the favorite 😉
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I have to say that my grandmother on my mom’s side was the best. She was the one who taught me how to cook puertorican comfort foods and taught me about my culture and heritage. And now I get to share it with my daughter.
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Both of my parents married late… in 1949 when everyone else was marrying in their 20’s. So both sets of grandparents were O.L.D. But, luckily I did have my beloved “Papa” who had the silliest sense of humor, which i’m happy to say I inherited.
About the choc. chips – how much to you put in – about 1/3 cup? Love this recipe!!
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That sounds about right.
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A delivery method for eating butter . . . I love it!
My grandparents were not fun- they were very serious, but my grandma did make terrific snickerdoodles!
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I have yet to try making a short bread recipe and I may just have to try this one. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
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