Give and Take

I was all up in arms because of a bad experience I just had with the baby at the Time Warner Center (apparently, Time Warner Center does not want your stinky little children grubbing up their pristine environment). Then I came home and comforted myself with some chocolate shortbread he and I made yesterday and realized there's benefits and drawbacks to my new life with August. I may not be welcome at a few of the places I used to frequent, but I now have an eager baking partner who loves to smear whatever we're making all over his already sweet little face.

The chocolate shortbread turned out a bit more crumbly than I think it was supposed to, which I'm sure was a result of less-than-accurate flour measuring. But this was sooo easy. And I'm thinking that most shortbread recipes (although not this one) would be good to bake with a baby who likes to taste the batter because they're eggless. August's desire to taste at every stage of the process makes me think I should try to track down pasteurized eggs rather than try to keep him away at the end of the process.

We creamed a stick of room-temperature butter with 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 cup cocoa and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Then we added an egg yolk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Mix in 1 cup flour, then pat into a greased 9-inch round springform pan and bake in a 350 degree oven 25 minutes. Let cool, then cut into wedges. These weren't very sweet, but deeply chocolately and kind of salty. We didn't add the glaze because that'd make them kind of messy.

These might be a chocolate overdose with fondue, but I think regular shortbread (or biscotti or, my favorite, macaroons) would make a decadent fondue.