#22 The world's on fire but Palentine's cookies

cultured butter shortbread and hibiscus ginger lemon glaze

Uhh happy valentine’s? It’s such a weird time for Valentine’s. I think it should get delayed by like a month this year.

Generally, I love all the pink, the heart-shaped stuff, and the flying babies. I like that there’s an excuse to make a bunch of tiny little cookies to give to friends, splurge on a fancy dinner at home, and buy discounted candy afterwards. So never mind that it’s a marketing ploy for companies to spur spending after an economically slow post-christmas season.

However, this year… idk it feels like everyone and their mom wants a piece of this capitalism cake. I guess with all politics and environmental things happening right now, I feel like it’s inappropriate and disconnected to try to push self-promotion in the guise of celebrating love and the color pink. Like California is on fire again, our society leaders are criminals, crackheads, and billionaires (the worst of the 3), and there’s an ongoing literal war and humanitarian crisis in Palestine. And after all that context, Valentine’s seems less cute this year.

Still, there’s always time to show the people you love a little bit of appreciation, and that’s ultimately what Valentine’s means to me. Sometimes these gestures are what saves a life, gives us hope, and just makes life vibrant again.

Shortbread cookies are make easy gifts—quick to make with ingredients already on hand. With a little bit of creativity and time, they’re also easily elevated. I can imagine black pepper cheese cookies for a little savory-sweet, garnishes like sprinkles or dried fruits and flowers, and different flavor combos for endless glaze options.

As per the subtitle, I made these shortbread cookies with cultured butter, glazed with a hibiscus ginger lemon glaze. The cultured butter add richness and a mild cheese/yogurt tang and flavor while the semolina adds amazing texture, and the richness in the cookies pair well with the tart, milky-pink glaze.

I used my stash of home-made cultured butter with smoky Maldon salt. Making butter is so fun even though it’s a little messy, but you could buy some from the store if you don’t want to live in a temporary homestead fantasy. Actually, any butter is going to work, even plant butter (just use the ones made for baking), but salt will need to be adjusted to taste.

Cultured butter shortbread cookies

Ingredients:

• 100g sugar

• 200g butter (softened to room-temp)

• 200g all purpose flour

• 100g semolina flour (if you don’t have semolina, just use 300g AP flour)

• 1/4-1/2 tsp salt (I didn’t use salt bc my butter was salted)

• vanilla

1. Beat the butter and sugar together until it’s combined. Add the salt in too, if using. Let it get fluffy, but try not to incorporate air into it. Air = spread = flat sad cookie

2. Add the flours and vanilla. Mix until combined. If using a stand or hand mixer, go on the lowest setting until combined, stop occasionally the scrape the bowl. If using a spatula, fold until combined; you don’t need to worry about over-mixing it by hand.

3. Dump the dough onto some plastic wrap. Wrap it up, and flatten into a square with a rolling pin. My dough was about 1cm thick.

4. Rest the dough in the fridge overnight and up to 3 days. Personally, I let it rest as long as possible. It’s my belief that doing so hydrates the dough, makes a crispy exterior, and develops more flavor.

5. For baking, preheat the oven to 350F. Roll out the dough, and punch out little hearts (or whatever shape), spacing each cookie a little apart. They spread a wee bit (not a lot). Bake for 10 minutes (depends on how big the cookies are).

6. Cool completely before glazing.

Hibiscus ginger lemon glaze

This glaze is tart and sweet, and the hibiscus makes the glaze a pretty pink without any food coloring. I didn’t want that gross powdered sugar taste, so there’s butter and white sugar to cut the powdered sugar. I was pretty pleased that it doesn’t taste like rockets/smarties candy. I don’t know if the ginger flavor even comes through, but I feel like it does add like a “hmmm what is this” kind of flavor. You can customize this with any kind of flavored liquid: liquor, different tea combos, even milk.

Ingredients:

• 20g plain white sugar

• 20g butter

• 50-80g powdered sugar

• 1/2 tsp lemon’s juice

• 3-4 dried hibiscus flowers

• 1 inch knob of ginger

• hot water for tea

1. Hibiscus ginger tea: Peel and cut the ginger. Boil some water & pour over the hibiscus flowers and ginger. Cover and let steep to extract all the flavors. You don’t need to make a lot of tea. I made 30-50ml. You can do this in the microwave, but it kind of makes a mess if you don’t watch it.

2. Add the granulated sugar, butter, and 20-40ml hibiscus-ginger tea to a pot. Boil until the butter has melted and the sugar is dissolved. You can eyeball how much liquid to put in. I’m trying to go for equal weights and enough liquid to cover the sugar. (This step is also doable in the microwave.)

3. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. I just add it at the end bc lemon juice can get a little bitter from the heat.

4. Add the powder sugar into a seperate bowl. Sift it if you want to be thorough about the clumps. Then add the liquid a few spoonfuls at a time, mixing each time. This is to help control the icing’s viscosity.

   1. Add more tea to thin out the icing or more powdered sugar to thicken.

5. If not using right away, place plastic wrap, touching the icing directly to prevent it from crusting.

6. To glaze, place the cookie directly into the glaze. Lift up, and place on a flat surface. With a small spoon, add a little bit more glaze on top for an even, thick layer. Repeat for each cookie. If decorating with garnishes like sprinkles or dried flowers, add while the glaze is somewhat wet.