Brown Sugar Shortbread with Lemon Curd and Fig Jam

I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately, especially after my Epic Roasthouse dinner with all the Fabulous Foodies of FoodBuzz, which I still need to post about.  I found a blog of a foodie in Japan which has incredible recipes.  One of my coworkers was leaving to take a new job up in Chico and so I gave him a handful of recipes and told him to pick one for his “parting treat”.  He picked this one.

The cookies and the jam are both super easy to make.  In fact, I couldn’t believe just how easy it was!  For the wine in both the shortbread and the jam I used Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc.  They turned out quite nicely, so nicely in fact, that I made a batch Monday night and a batch Tuesday night. 

Here is the jam reducing on the stovetop.  It was such a gorgeous color.  I didn’t cut the figs into small enough pieces so I had to use my Pampered Chef Chopper in it to get it saucier.  It worked perfectly.  I could have used my immersion blender as well, but it was in the pantry and the chopper was right next to me.

Finished Fig Jam

   

Max, keeping an eye on the cookies while they bake.

Lemon Curd

My good friend Amber made this incredible lemon curd for her wedding cake. (Oh yes, she baked her own cake for her wedding!) On her wedding day, as she was icing her cake, she commented to me that she made too much lemon curd. Me, being ever resourceful, asked what she was going to do with it - especially as she was about to leave on her honeymoon in a few days. Suffice it to say that I finagled the beloved lemon curd and packed it away in my cooler - with a promise that I would blog about it when I was done. So here is one of the ways that I used the curd.

One of our interns at work had taken another job and so I needed to bring a treat in for the office. I decided to make some cupcakes with lemon curd frosting. They were quite popular at work. In fact, in the afternoon of the day that I brought them in, my boss called me into his office. He told me, quite sternly, that he was unhappy with me. I got a little fidgety, thinking "Crap! What did I do?" Then he says, "I ate three cupcakes today." LOL! I guess they were pretty good.

I used some of the curd on a spoon, straight out of the jar. I spread some on pancakes as well. Lemon curd is really delicious and I'll have to learn how to make it. Maybe I can finagle some lemons from my neighbor's tree...

Here is a photo of Amber's wedding cakes and cookies. Much nicer than my little cupcakes!!

Amber & Matt's Wedding

Amber and Matt were married on September 9, 2009 in Oakhurst, CA. It was beautiful and I'm very honored to have had the opportunity to marry two good friends who are so in love.