- I brought you a little somethin'.
- Oh. - Yeah!
Cookies, (laughs), or as y'all call 'em here, biscuits.
Right?
Though I do not recommend you smother these in gravy.
- Oh, Ted, I don't really. - Oh, oh c'mon now.
Take a lookie there.
- Oh, those do look good.
- Right?
Go ahead, take a nibble, that's it.
Way you go.
(soft music) (beep)
- Mae.
- Um! - Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to Binging with Babish
where this week we are taking a look
at the shortbread biscuits
from the disarmingly charming Fred Lasso.
Brant, Ted Lasso, that was a real outtake folks,
I'm leaving it in there as a sort of punishment to myself.
Anyway, let's start with a really,
very quick and easy shortbread.
Into a large bowl goes 225 grams
of softened unsalted butter,
100 grams granulated sugar,
and three grams of kosher salt.
We're beatin' all these together into a paste
using a regular sized whisk,
and then we're adding 340 grams of plain flour.
Mixing together at first with a rubber spatula,
and then once it becomes too crumbly,
utilizing our bare mitts until the mixture is homogenous,
there are no more dry spots,
and we have a lovely crumbly dough, an early indicator
that we have achieved a nice short pastry.
Then we are liberally lubricating
a quarter sheet with butter, dropping in our dough,
and starting to press it down flat.
You don't wanna press it too much,
something that I'm definitely doing right now.
but this is my first batch, give me a break.
Oh no Andy, don't use the, ah, you used it.
Anyway, once we packed that way too tight,
it's headed into a 150 degree Celsius oven
for a whopping one to one and one half hours.
Then we're going to let it cool for 10 minutes
before measuring and slicing.
I say measuring, because I have a pretty pink pastry parcel,
just like Coach Lasso,
that I want them to be able to fit in.
Then once they are sliced, it's time to let them rest
until completely cooled, at least four hours
before retrieving them with your very smallest,
and thinnest, offset spatula.
And as you can see, I compressed them way too hard
and I strongly suspect that they were under baked,
but they still had a lovely crumbly
short texture, and beautiful buttery flavor.
So we're going to try again,
this time both adding some secret ingredients,
and fixing my mistakes.
First up, toasted sugar.
A sugar whose virtues are endlessly extolled
by the one and only Stella Parks.
Basically, we're just pouring a whole bunch of sugar
into a large casserole, and baking at 150 Celsius
for anywhere from two to three hours.
We're moving in tiny whisking, every 15 to 20 minutes
until the sugar is a golden toasty brown.
Allow to cool completely before using.
Next step, some nutty and toasty brown butter
where we cook and constantly swirl
some butter in a medium saute pan over medium high heat
until the milk fat's separate and brown.
Likewise, let it cool completely before using.
Now, in the bowl of the stand mixer,
we are combining 140 grams of unsalted butter,
55 grams of our brown butter,
140 grams of our toasted sugar,
and three grams of salt.
Creaming on high speed until creamed.
Give the sides of the bowl a good scrape down,
and then in a separate bowl combine
275 grams of plain flour and 55 grams of corn starch.
Tiny whisking to combine,
before dumping into the stand mixer.
Mix on low speed for one to two minutes
until a crumbly dough forms,
at which point it's time to incorporate
our final secret ingredient.
We're thoroughly buttering our quarter sheet like usual,
and then coating evenly in Demerara sugar,
a coarse, crunchy, molassesy, sugar,
that's gonna give our shortbread that crumbly look
that they have on the show.
This time, much more gently,
we are patting our dough into the prepared sheet pan,
topping with a generous layer of Demerara sugar,
so it's coating on all sides.
And baking, once again, at 150 Celsius
for anywhere from one to one and a half hours.
This time making sure that it emerges looking golden brown
and crisp around the edges.
Once again, waiting 10 minutes before
carving into our specified shapes,
allowing it to cool completely at least four hours.
Retrieving our biscuits before the most important part,
box assembly.
I have here a 150 millimeter by 115 millimeter
by 70 millimeter pastry box, which should fit our biscuits
like whatever the British equivalent of a glove is.
I know that they're a lot bigger than the ones on the show,
but they have the same beautiful
golden brown, crumbly texture.
The kind that you can tell is going to be sweet,
and short, and crunchy, and nutty, just by looking at it.
And it is all of those things,
it is my new favorite shortbread.
There's only one more thing we need
to make it truly biscuits with gloss, and that is tea.
AKA, Ted Lasso's garbage water, but you know what they say?
One man's garbage water is another man's
treasure water.
(gentle upbeat music)
(music intensifies)