VittlesVamp

Chocolate Shortbread

Ted Lasso has given us all shortbread envy. While we await the third season, thought it was high time to come up with my own shortbread recipe.

Didn't even want to try to replicate the shortbread that Ted brings Rebecca for his daily "Biscuits with the Boss" sessions. That would be a reach. Instead, I decided to make a rich, slightly salty chocolate shortbread studded with bits of dark chocolate. I use two different kinds of cocoa to lend a little more complexity to the chocolate character of the biscuits.

Three of these delectable chocolate shortbread cookies are pictured above with a few tender slivers of candied orange peel. I recommend the combination! And, a bit of Dry Orange Curacao to go with wouldn't be a bad idea either, if I do say so myself!

Chocolate Shortbread

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Hershey's)
1 tablespoon unsweetened red Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I use Guittard Cocoa Rouge)
1 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted cold butter, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips or 2 oz dark chocolate chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place flour, sugar, both cocoa powders, and salt into a food processor and pulse. Add butter and chocolate and pulse to fine crumbs. Pulse a few more times until some crumbs start to come together, but don't overprocess. Dough should not be smooth. Press dough into an ungreased 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan. Bake 35 minutes for 9-inch pan, 45 minutes for 8-inch. Cool completely in the pan and then gently turn over the pan on top of a cutting board to release. Cut into bars.

Coffee Talk

While Mike Myers' SNL coffee klatsch character Linda Richman has a special place in my heart, there is a real world version that gets my entire neighborhood verklempt - or at the very least, gets Brooklyn Heights' intelligensia to line up.

There is a slip of a coffee shop in the Clark Street 2/3 subway arcade that is attracting coffee lovers who are also seeking some mental stimulation. The tiny stand - a branch of Drip - is often manned by a barista named Andrew (pictured above) who seems to spark the cerebral in locals, whether he is making a pour-over or pulling an espresso shot.

I recently stopped by for a latte, just as Andrew was wrapping up a discussion about Hegel with a customer who is getting a PhD in Philosophy. Didn't need to glom onto the chat about Hegel, but I did have a hankering to learn about how these types of conversations start in the moments between placing an order and getting your morning or afternoon brew. I asked him about some of his most interesting chats behind the bar - the coffee bar that is.

The most interesting?

Well, there was the fascinating Bangladeshi Jewish Zionist who shared thoughts on Central Asia and Middle Eastern politics, Afghanistan, Palestine, and more. Then there was the local celebrity that kicked off a deep discussion about self-actualization. And, there was the fintech executive that debated the merits of digital currencies.

Let's not forget about all of the neighbors who notice that Andrew has squirreled away a paperback at the back of the stall for when it gets slow - one of Robert Caro's tomes on LBJ - and then want to talk U.S. history and the lore of Camelot - or simply go down a bookworm rabbithole while sipping on a cortado.

Andrew says that knowing a little about a lot has been a big help in propelling highly-engaged discussion. While his college years were focused on biology and microbiology, he sees himself as a generalist: "I think Gladwell talks about this 'being general' stuff as being quite beneficial as a society, because then you can talk about several different things and people [admire that you have a level of] competency."

He recognizes that intellectual conversation can been seen as a valuable commodity these days, especially in a world where "most people want to talk about the Kardashians."

Moreover, he is genuinely delighted to have these sorts of exchanges - dialogue that is reminiscent of the rhetoric that we all imagined we'd have at that perfect coffee shop just off of the college green.

Well, the Clark Street subway stop isn't anywhere near a college green, but there is educational housing located right above. And, between the dorm, the aroma of espresso, and Andrew, I may be able to make out a bit of college green in the not-too-far-off distance.