Tea Time With Eleanor Shortbread Cookies

books and baking

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for the review of this book

Do you remember recently when I upgraded my rating of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine from 4.5 stars to 5 stars?  It's because I couldn't stop recommending it and I thought of Eleanor so often that she was a total fictional friend!  Our friendship is so strong, in fact, that I decided she needed her own themed Books & Baking post!  So without further ado, I present Tea time with Eleanor Shortbread cookies.P.S.  If you want to read this book in your book club and are looking for questions at your meeting, scroll to the bottom of this post!Click here: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely FineSo the base recipe that I followed for this post is from Ina Garten.  Feel free to laugh with me about the spot in the directions where you can't trust your microwave timer.For this recipe you will need the following INGREDIENTS:3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature1 cup white sugar, plus extra for sprinkling1 Tbsp powdered sugar (optional)1 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste (you can use regular extract too)3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1/4 teaspoon salt2 Tbsp waterDark chocolate melting wafers (or dark chocolate chips)I also used a teapot cookie cutter that I got for 50 cents at Michaels!DIRECTIONS:

Using a mixer, cream together the 3 sticks of butter and 1 cup of sugar.

Next add in your vanilla bean paste.  I got mine at HomeGoods/Marshall's and it's just a stronger taste of vanilla then regular vanilla extract.  If you only have vanilla extract you can DEFINITELY use that, but maybe even add 1/4 of a teaspoon more!

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Add 2 tablespoons of water

Next add the flour and the salt together in a mixing bowl and stir those suckers together!  Add that into your mixer!

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Grab some wax paper and sprinkle that with powdered sugar (also called confectioner's sugar). You CAN use flower if you don't have powdered sugar but the powdered sugar makes the cookies a bit sweeter!

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Roll the dough out as best you can on the wax paper. I used my hands a lot for this, and after I saw how crumbly it was I made the addition to the recipe of adding the tablespoons of water.  Put the dough with the wax paper onto a cookie sheet and put in into your fridge for at least 30 minutes.

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Take out the refrigerated dough and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  If it's not rolled out the way you'd like, let it thaw a bit and then use your roller again to roll it out.  Next use your cookie cutter to cut out the teapot shapes and place them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. For the tea bag shape, cut lines into the dough like a grid with the size of rectangles you want.  Then just cut off the corners of one side of the rectangle at an angle. When you put the tea bags onto the cookie sheet, use a toothpick to create a little hole in the top.

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Place into your oven at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  Remove and place on a cooling rack.

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While your cookies are cooling, grab your dark chocolate chips and put them into a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave them for 30 seconds. Stir completely, then microwave in 15 second increments until

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melted.  Then stir until the remaining chocolate chips melt into the rest!

Next dip your cooled off cookies into the chocolate. Put your bowl at an angle to get the teapots covered half way with the chocolate.  Place the dipped cookies onto wax paper to let the chocolate set. Enjoy!

You did it! You've made cookies that Eleanor would love- even if she only ever accepts them from Raymond's mum. Keep these cookies all for yourself or share them with your book club!

book club questions

1.  Did you see the twist coming for Eleanor?2. Do you think Raymond and Eleanor would make a good couple?3.  If you could help Eleanor change one thing about her life (her job, her apartment, her hairstyle, etc.) what would you choose?4. What's one something that Eleanor did that you found funny/entertaining throughout the book?5. Do you think Eleanor really believed she was talking to her mother every week?6. What do you do when someone you know won't help themselves but really needs help?I hope you enjoy baking and reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as much as I did!

happy eating