Rosewater Shortbread + The Sims 3

This week’s post is late, and that has everything to do with the game I’m posting about. I co-hosted Game Dames this past Sunday and The Sims 3 came up in conversation. That was all it took– the very next day, I was reinstalling the game.

I’ve been a fan of The Sims since I was seven or eight years old, and that life-sapping life simulator holds a special place in the part of my brain that occasionally gets an insatiable urge to sit indoors and stare at a glowing, rectangular screen for days on end. I think it’s probably the same part of my brain that occasionally gets cravings for shortbread cookies. In any case, brain matter aligned and I ended up doing both in the same week.

A pretty accurate representation of real life.

It wasn’t enough for me to just make regular ole’ shortbread cookies, so I scoured the internet (“internet” here having the meaning of “one website”) for shortbread that included rosewater, but came up short (see what I did there?). I decided to adapt the simplest shortbread recipe I could find, which was this one. The results were pretty fantabulous, with my only complaint being that I maybe should have added more rosewater or incorporated it more thoroughly. Some of the cookies have that sweet hint of rose flavor, but some of them just taste like shortbread. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I decided to make my fiance and I in The Sims 3. It wasn’t so much out of some horrible need to live a virtual life that’s better than my real one as it was a case of creative bankruptcy. I’m not very good at creating and naming characters in The Sims that I actually want to play for a long period of time. I just like to make myself, and then maybe also the Fisher family from Six Feet Under. And Solid and Liquid Snake.

Callan’s Sim and my Sim quickly had children– twin girls. I was pretty pissed. Raising one toddler in The Sims is annoying enough, but two? This was going to be disastrous. And it was. By the time they’d reached childhood, I’d taught them to use the toilet and talk, but didn’t have time to teach them to walk because of Callan’s busy and lucrative career as a lab test subject and mine as a private detective to the stars. As a result, The Sims deemed their upbringing “rough” and gave one of them the “evil” trait and the other the “brave” trait. You’d think our Sims beat their children. You’d think they were malnourished orphans or something. Who do you think you are, virtual children? The goddamn Batman?

… I should make Bruce Wayne in The Sims.

Double birthday means double birthday cakes! Fatasses.

Whenever I make cookies and people tell me they’re delicious, I feel a twinge of guilt and want to say, “Sorry, I can’t really take credit. I mean I made them and all, but they’re cookies. It’s just in their nature to be delicious.” Butter and sugar– it’s a helluva combination. With that in mind, here’s this week’s recipe.

ROSEWATER SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Adapted from SmokyWok’s Recipe, which was adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (unless you use salted butter– then don’t add salt)
• 8oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2tsp rosewater

Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine flour and salt. In your electric mixer, beat butter until it’s fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add sugar and beat until combined and slightly fluffier. You’ll need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice to make sure everything is incorporated. Beat in vanilla and rosewater, then add your flour/salt combo and mix on low until it’s just combined. Dough should not be sticky, but should stick together when you squeeze it.

Turn your dough out onto your counter top and form it into two discs. Be kind of gentle– don’t go kneading the crap out of it, just form it into a ball, then pat it down into a disc shape. Wrap both of your discs in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. You can chill them longer though, like if you’re strapped for time or if you’re the sort of crazy person who doesn’t want shortbread cookies in their mouth ASAP.

When your hour is up, preheat your oven to 325°F. Roll your dough into 1/4 inch discs. Cut out cookies into whatever shapes you want. In my case, I couldn’t find the cookie cutters so I used a small cup and then poked holes into the cookies using a toothpick. Bake for 12-14 minutes– though for some reason, I found that mine took eons longer to reach that golden, firm and very slightly browned stage. If that’s the case with you, just gauge how much time you think they’ve got left to reach delicious cookie status. I added about 4 minutes at a time to my oven timer until they were finished.

Rejoice! You’ve got cookies. Go make a cup of Earl Grey and eat them all at once. I’m off to do that now– and play more Sims 3. Oh dear.

About these ads