Sullivan Street Bakery: Scozzese
Jim Lahey learned about great bread from his travels to Rome, Italy. He mastered the art, wrote a couple books and now supplies bread to over 300 restaurants in NYC. The food you’ll find at Sullivan Street Bakery and the recipes in his books are easy and delicious.
The Scozzese cookie was inspired by Jim’s love for the Danish butter cookies found in blue tin around the holidays. Scozzese, which is Italian for Scottish, are shortbread cookies that are addictive and make a great little treat on your cheat day. You can find this recipe and many more in Jim’s famous book The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook by Jim Lahey with Maya Joseph.
Making the Scozzese is very, very easy. There are minimal ingredients and minimal tools needed. It’s quite possibly the easiest cooke you’ll ever make. With that being said, you would think that it’s too simple to mess up … oops. On our first try we over baked the cookies. They baked way faster than we expected. On our second try we almost did it again. These little dreams bake fast so make sure to keep your eye on them.
Recipe
Ingredients
150 grams (1 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour
50 grams (1/4 cup) sugar
3 grams (1/2 teaspoon) fine sea salt
113 grams (1 stick/8 tablespoons) top-quality unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
Directions
1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Stir the flour, sugar, and salt together with a fork in a medium bowl. Add the softened butter and mix with a fork. Mix until the ingredients are well combined, but note that the dough will not come together on its own. It should be crumbly. Use your hands to gently squeeze the dough into a loose ball and then knead lightly until the dough is quite malleable. Press the dough into the tart pan in a nice even layer or pat the dough into a giant cookie — square, circle or rectangle — about 1/2 inch thick. Use your favorite cookie cutters, or bake as is.
2. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the shortbread has turned a lovely golden hue, slightly darker around the edges. Using a sharp knife, cut the shortbread into 12 wedges. Place the pan on a cooling rack. When cool, carefully cut through the wedges again and remove the shortbread from the pan.
