Hungarian Shortbread (TWD)

I'm a day late posting, but this week's Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia recipe was hosted by Lynette of 1smallkitchen and Cher of The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler…: Hungarian Shortbread.  This shortbread recipe is very similar to most traditional shortbreads - made with flour, sugar, and a lot of butter.  However, instead of rolling out the dough, half of it is grated into the pan and then topped with fruit preserves, and then topped with more grated dough.

The dough recipe was simple, and the results quite delicious.  However, I think I spent a good 30 minutes grating all of the dough! It kept getting too soft to grate so I'd have to put it back in the fridge to chill while I grated the other ball of dough. So, while these were buttery, crumbly, and delicious, I'm afraid I won't be making them again simply because I cannot put myself through another 30 minutes straight of grating again!

Thanks to Lynette and Cher for hosting; you can find the recipe on their blogs here and here.  Make sure you check here, too, to see what everyone else thought of these sweet, buttery treats.

* Recipe notes:

- I used a 13 x 9 inch pyrex pan to bake my shortbread.

- Instead of 8 oz of fruit preserves, I used 16 oz.  This seemed to be a good amount.  I think 8 oz would result in a layer of fruit preserves that was too thin.  I would recommend using at least 12 oz.

- I had to bake my shortbread for an extra 15 minutes before it was golden brown on top.  Some bakers noted that the bottom layer seemed undercooked but I did not have this problem since I baked mine longer.