Friday Flatlay: Hey, Good Lookin’

I don’t exactly have anything cookin’ – more like bakin’!

This morning’s fun-employment inspiration had me in the cookie test kitchen. Most cookies are easy to make, inexpensive, and everyone likes them. One of my favorite cookies to make are shortbreads. As difficult as the dough can sometimes be, they are one of the most simple, versatile baked goods that will earn you loads of recognition from your grandma and her friends.

Over the holidays, I got a wild hair up my *peach emoji* and decided to bust out 10 batches of shortbreads to gift. “How hard could this be? These cookies only call for three ingredients and you’ve made plenty of other cookies before.” Well, it only took me three batches of these suckers to finally figure out how to gently work the crumbly dough into one workable lump. No one told me it would be this confusing. I’ll admit I cried a little and had a mini breakdown, BUT I ended up with regular shortbreads, vegan shortbreads, and my now-prized recipe: vegan Earl Grey shortbreads.

I decided that since I’ve perfected my shortbread cookie, I would try again with different flavors, plus a batch of vegan Earl Grey to comfort myself if the other flavors didn’t quite work out. I tried:

Brown butter and honey (thanks to inspiration from Baker by Nature’s Brown Butter and Honey Pistachio Cookie Bars)
Vegan espresso (using Verve Coffee Roasters’ Sermon)

Waiting for them to cool and then I’ll taste test. I didn’t burn down the house, so here’s to making it out of the kitchen alive and well. Recipes coming soon!

Happy Friday!