Raphael Pro / freeimages.com / 2012
The 6th of January is Shortbread Day!
This could be a good day to see off the last stocks of Christmas shortbread still hanging around by unloading it on friends and neighbours, or by cramming it into the lunchboxes of unsuspecting loved ones.
If you’re a fan of shortbread and happen to have spent the holidays in a shortbread-deprived stupor, then maybe it’s a good day to make or buy yourself some at post-Christmas prices and satisfy your craving, before it disappears from store shelves completely for the year, making you all antsy by July (unless you’re in Scotland, where it’s made the year round.)
Shortbread is good with tea or whiskey (just watch how much shortbread you’re partaking of, whiskey fans warn.) Shortbread aficionados say that “shortbread” is just another name for “butter delivery system”, and swear by it warm out of the oven.
Some other activities for today:
- Learn about shortbread and its history;
- Ask your friends what their favourite brand of shortbread is, and why;
- If you think something called “shortbread” might have yeast in it, then you’re definitely a candidate to read CooksInfo’s write-up on shortbread (CooksInfo does not even attempt to give out the “definitive” shortbread recipe. We’re smarter than to embroil ourselves in a quagmire like that…)
So treat yourself, or if your good Scots Calvinist ethics won’t let you do that, treat a friend… and remember, though there’s a lot more to Scotland than shortbread and tartan, they just happen to make the best shortbread in the world, effortlessly.
#ShortbreadDay
Recipes
Noir Kitsuné / flickr.com / 2011 / CC BY 2.0