For August 5

Another catch-up (not katsup) post. Last week was all about Martha:

Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread
Double Chocolate Brownies

both from Martha Stewart's Cookies

Both yummy - this week, in a first (or first in my limited memory), I came out liking the chocolate item less then the others. I really liked the shortbread cookies - they were buttery but also had a good dose of salt, so there was a sweet and salty aspect. The recipe called for including orange zest, but I ended up with a 2/3 orange zest-1/3 lemon zest combination to try to give it a little more character. The shortbread also includes a small amount of cornmeal (I used a very fine cornmeal, not the usual coarse, stone-ground variety) and then the dough logs are rolled in cornmeal to give an edging to each cookie. All in all, I liked them a lot, and since these are slice and bake cookies, as long as you prepare the dough ahead and refrigerate it, you have a really nice cookie available with very little immediate effort.

The brownies were, well brownies. These were "double chocolate" because they used both cocoa powder as well as bittersweet chocolate. These are apparently one of the most popular recipes from the Martha Stewart web site or whatever, and I can see why - they are most but not super dense, and not cakey (yuck). A very good, solid, respectable brownie.