Get out your knits and flannels...it's Fall!

Fall is definitely in the air (although, in Edinburgh it feels suspiciously like Winter)...hey ho! While waiting, yet again, for a delivery which never came - oh how I want to scream and curse the courier right now! - I managed to crank out a few batches of shortbread. The main recipe I couldn't wait to try was a Pumpkin Spice Shortbread. How perfect for Fall...deep orange from the pumpkin, lots of warm ginger, spicy cinnamon and lovely allspice...my mouth is watering just thinking about them! I bet your saying 'But you don't have to salivate, they're in your kitchen right now! Eat, woman!'. You'd almost be right. Except for the small, tiny fact that the fall inspired shortbread cookies I made earlier came out tougher than the rubber on my Fry boots. You could've built the pyramids with them! In fact, if you know anyone looking for pumpkin coloured building material, I'm your girl! Sad to say, they won't be seeing the light of day. Not even a pumpkin pie spiced white chocolate drizzle could save them. Can't win 'em all!

However, I did make a batch of Pecan Praline Shortbread that came out heavenly! I was so happy with the result. The above picture are the pecans that I decided to candy first and then blitz in the food processor to then mix through the shortbread dough. The pecans remind me of my grandma, Mag. She is one of my cooking inspirations. For as long as I can remember, she was in the kitchen making something delicious: melted cheddar on toast with thick slices of tomatos, mushrooms with gorgonzola, parsley and garlic, English toffee, chocolate chip cookies, and candied pecans at Christmas. I never asked her for the recipe and haven't ever made them until now. Food can be so emotionally powerful, and I loved thinking about her while making these cookies.

Pecans, right....ok, so I blitzed them in the food processor so that every teeny tiny bite of shortbread would be perfectly confettied with pecans. If only I had a bowl of vanilla ice cream right now...oh me, oh my! What you don't see here are the 5 minutes before the blitzing when I was giving one pecan to the food processor, one to me, one to the processor, two to me...it was like sacrificial baking. Keeps me happy. It's fine, I have my leggings on today! Where was I? Pecans! Right, so I combined the pecans with the other ingredients and let the dough rest for a bit so it firmed up. Popped those babies in the oven and presto!

The Handsome Hunter is watching football, Izzy is all curled up at my feet and I'm snuggled up on the couch with my tartan wool blanket. Yep, come on in Fall...we've been expecting you.

xx