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I'm looking for a wafer cone recipe. I can't seem to find one. All that seems to come up are waffle cone recipes and cakes made in ice cream cones... Does anyone have a good recipe? I just want the batter; I'm not actually trying to make a cone. I'm trying to recreate a Korean snack called White Heim. It's a wafer roll type thing with white chocolate hazelnut filling. I tried a wafer roll/barquillos recipe and it was totally different. Almost tasted like pancake. And was kind of greasy. I think the roll in the snack seemed more like a wafer ice cream cone. So I'm looking to try with that batter instead.

Okay, it was underbaked for sure! I was thinking of how other cookies usually take ~15 minutes, so as soon as it firmed up a bit, I took them out! I set the timer for 15 minutes and kept adding a few minutes so I'm not sure the exact time (plus opening and closing probably took away a lot of the heat) because I always seem to overbake other cookies by adding "just a few more minutes" so it made me paranoid... I definitely need to try again.

I might start to feel sorry I asked - not enough avocados to try all these delicious things! Since this morning, chromedome's post was the last I read, and all day I was thinking along the lines of : and: Avocado + condensed milk reminded me of pumpkin pie filling... and since I'm also on the quest for great shortbread (The BEST Shortbread... What IS Shortbread?) I was thinking of a shortbread crust (trying out @Okanagancook's recipe as it has egg and nutmeg)... And came here to ask for ideas for additions to the filling, because I don't think I really want a heavily spiced filling like some pumpkin pies are... Maybe some cinnamon? Salt? I don't know... ...And topped with avocado mousse instead of whipping cream? (Waiting for @anomalii on that one...) I am craving some sweetness. But now that sushi's been brought into the game (duh, why didn't I think of sushi and soy sauce?!) and all these enticing pictures... I'm in quite the dilemma. I do have lots of eggs. And bread. Also have some shrimp. And nori. I might need to get some more avocados...

Actually very tempting because I feel like something sweet and I've got some homemade condensed milk in the fridge, but I feel like I should do something a bit more special... I really do like guacamole (thank you for the recipe - will use in future!). So which of these is even better than guacamole? Please let me know how this goes! Sounds delicious. I need this tree in my backyard... Grilled avocado! Sounds great too... Tree reminds me of the time I planted the seed in a pot and it grew. Which reminds me that I read the seed is very nutritious and should be eaten. Anyone know anything about this? I assume it should be blended but can you cook it afterwards or does that destroy the nutrients... I feel like you'd have to hide it in something... Another thing I thought of while typing this... If sprouted things are healthier, would the sprouted avocado seed be better...? Okay I'll stop thinking now. Don't get the wrong idea now, I'm not looking for anything particularly healthy - just something delicious. It's just that the avocado seed is a pretty big chunk of the avocado to throw away... And if it's supposed to be healthy and nutritious, might as well eat it... Waste not want not?

I like eating them as-is, but we don't often have avocados. Thought I'd make the most of the bag we have now and make something delicious. Any ideas?

The almonds sound like a great variation! Glad to hear you still get to enjoy some baking... I thought it was tragic when you said your oven was currently broken. So strange how what we consider a staple here is so hard to find on the other side of the world!

I am pretty sure my shortbread was underbaked. I just remembered I had a friend long ago who gave out shortbread cookies in the holiday season and always talked about how she was very particular about baking them and she just bakes it enough to be bakes and doesn't like it baked any more. And you did mention the mottling if baked longer (though some people prefer it like that). I tried to go for the paler like you described as it matched what I remember from my friend's shortbread long ago (though I must say it wasn't particularly outstanding), but I guess it still needed a lot more. The edges were ever so lightly beginning to brown. They all got eaten though. I think the rice flour shortbread I had before (the one I mentioned in my first post) just had a crazy amount. Because I really like the texture of the rice flour in this particular one.

I wondered this too. I've never heard of the cocoa butter requirement. Is it possible to get that floury taste I described with my failed cookies due to them being underbaked?

Thank you so much @helenjp for your detailed information! Really helpful and I enjoyed reading it. ...I'm sorry I still managed to mess up and do not have proper results I really do hope that when I get around to trying a proper batch that someone else will eventually try some as well so we can have various opinions and see which recipe has the most votes...

So I messed up both recipes and need to do it again, but just thought I'd report the fact that I did try... I know, I know, how do you mess up shortbread?! There's only 4 ingredients... Well, I'm pretty sure my scale is off. I have always been kind of aware of this and try my best to adjust, but it didn't work out this time... It's really bad with receiving weights of very light items (e.g. cornstarch) or in very slow increments... There was way too much flour and/or cornstarch in the final product. I did kind of have my doubts when I was making the dough (so I did add some more butter) - it wasn't really coming together and it was really crumbly like streusel. But I just pressed it into the pan. It did cut fine and when it came out the cookies did not fall apart. But I don't taste butter at all, it feels like I'm just eating flour... Sigh. FWIW, I did like the rice flour one better. Don't know if this counts though, because I messed up the recipes. My plan was to take pictures of the crumb of the two different cookies but they look exactly the same. Both seemed to use ~10% protein flour. Since I only had superfine cake flour and AP I mixed the two, like they do for that famous cake flour-bread flour chocolate chip cookie recipe (which a lot of people claim is best) as I read a comment saying that cake flour and bread flour mixed together is basically AP (based on protein content) so certain people just used AP, but others commented that there is a texture difference with the two different flours mixed together which makes the cookie better... Not sure about that. On a side note, would anyone happen to know about this?

I won't be baking until later in the week, but I wanted to write the two recipes down. So when I went to do this, I found that they're almost identical! The only difference is the cornstarch amount! And both grandmothers seem to use the same method of just pressing into the pan. Is 'caster sugar' and 'fine sugar' the same? Okay, so if two Scottish grandmothers agree like this, we must be getting close to a 'best' recipe... Edit: Just realized JohnT's uses cake flour, and I would assume helenjp's uses all-purpose. Wonder if it will make that much of a difference? Canadian all-purpose is a lot higher in protein... More things to consider!

You had me convinced here... Okay, I will try the two Scottish grandmother recipes first! Thank you so much, @helenjp for your very informative post! I know it's hard in words, but are you able to explain what the texture of the dough should feel like, then? (This is why I liked @Okanagancook's recipe method as it said to add flour just until it cracks. I thought that was interesting and I liked that old-fashioned go-by-feel thing - I do plan on measuring how much I add though). This really intrigued me, but I don't quite understand. Sorry, can you explain further? Why would rice flour texture be better than the softer cornflour texture if there's less sugar? How is sugar content related to that? My family really likes their stuff a lot less sweet and I always struggle with this because I know you can't reduce sugar too much without (sometimes drastic) sacrifices to overall quality. This is why I'm trying to learn as much as I can so I can figure out how to adjust recipes properly. But I do also want to know how to make things by the normal standard for when I bake for people other than my family. It's hard to manage because I noticed that they actually like some things better when sweeter, as long as the overall product is very good. So I find that more often than not, my family does agree with the normal standard... Not sure if I'm making sense here. I don't really understand their tastes myself, so it's hard to explain without going into specific foods. I love the sound of this... A while ago, I had a very rich thumbprint cookie, and I loved it! It was one of the best cookies I've ever had... This must be it! I'll be trying this too, after all this regular shortbread stuff is out of the way... Do you just use the same method as you would for other cookies? Cream butter and sugar, then add flour and baking powder?

It is the opinions that made them so great, and they are great learning threads. And they did come up with a general consensus (or at least, two or three, at times) which I hope to achieve here as well. Though everyone has different tastes, there are reasons why certain brands and products are more popular. More people think they are the best. Really, I would like to find a recipe or two that are most popular amongst the eGullet community. I am going away for the weekend and when I come back, I will try the "grandmother" recipes given here and will post results... I wanted to try @Okanagancook's recipe as I loved this: This recipe has to be pretty legitimate because only the best recipes are found in places like that...! I liked the method too. And I was going to compare it to @chromedome's recipe, using volume measurements like his grandmother. Also, do you have a recommended temperature to bake? That was the plan until @JohnT post. It was silly how excited I was by your post! I will definitely be trying your recipe as well! Thank you so much for posting! I'd be really interested to see your notes! Do you mind sharing this one as well? And do you think you'd be able to try your grandmother's recipe and let us know what you personally think of it? If you think it's better than your current one? Since JohnT is the first to present a recipe that seems to be "the best" (though much more humbly), I really hope others will try JohnT's recipe as well to see if they think it's better than theirs or if it even manages to be "the one" that stops the search. Perhaps @cakewalk would sub in rice flour for the cornstarch. I wondered if anyone would actually want to bake different batches of cookies but after reading through various threads here, that's what people here seem to do! This is what impressed me and lead me to start this topic. But I do understand if this doesn't actually happen. I will try the recipes, but to be honest, it's not really my opinion that I care about, it's everyone else's - I'd like to see the majority opinion. That is just my hope, however.

This and @chromedome's talk of toasting flour is making my mind wander to toasted flour shortbread (at the moment, I don't think it would help in this thread though..still looking for just plain shortbread first)? Since flour is such a large proportion, it would kind of make sense to make that part taste really good as it makes up the biggest part of the cookie...

I'd like to find a best plain shortbread recipe first. I feel like once you start adding other flavours, that's what's making seem good. I want the shortbread part to taste good and able to hold its own. I mean, once you start adding chocolate, of course it's going to taste good! Before getting into all this shortbread stuff, I had an earl gray shortbread recipe I really liked but for some reason that one, and other earl gray shortbread recipes I've seen, form it into a log, chill it, and cut it. Confused as to why they use a different method just due to different flavour. Would doing it that way that have significant effect to texture? Compared to traditional methods. I've seen other cookie recipes call for that too.

I thought so too, but what really drew me to this forum were the threads like : etc. I realize these are over ten years old, so I did have my doubts about whether something like this would work now. But I really loved going through all these threads, they were pretty amazing to me.

I actually have some chickpea flour..! Hmm, another thing to consider!

Thank you for the recipe! The egg is new. 7oz butter 3.6oz sugar 8.5 oz flour That does seem like significantly less sugar than the other recipes. I'm guessing this would be my personal preference, but I don't know how popular it'd be with Westerners' sweet tooths teeth; coming from an Asian background I tend to prefer less sweet. I forgot to mention the vanilla! It seems to me that more recipes contain vanilla than not. The rice flour shortbread cookie I mentioned in my first post actually had vanilla in it and that was the only reason I ate the rest (no one else wanted them afterwards...) because I liked the flavour (the vanilla was kind of overpowering). But it feels like I liked it as a "vanilla cookie" rather than a "shortbread cookie" if that makes sense... I feel like butter should be the main flavour. But maybe in moderation it can do a lot of good. What does everyone else think.. Yes vanilla for 'real' or 'best' shortbread? Now I don't know which recipe to try! It would be hard to try them all as chromedome kind-of mentioned, butter is expensive. I will try a couple and hopefully others will as well so we can narrow down a bit. There has to be at least one that stands out a bit, to everyone...

Thank you for the recipe! Hoping to find "the one" to end all searches through this thread! Do you happen to know which recipes you've tried? If there were any that you really did not like (especially if there were specific aspects that lead to specific undesirable results), I think it would help narrow down the search so we can eliminate some recipes from the start. Also, I noticed the recipe you linked has very specific instructions. It uses cold butter and the mixing method is almost akin to the method for biscuits and pie dough. Is this method used purposely to get that flakiness that we consider makes successful biscuits and pie crusts? If so, should we make every effort to keep the butter and dough cold and work it as little as possible like I've been told for biscuits and pie crusts? If the cold butter thing is important in this recipe, it'd be really neat to compare a recipe that uses melted butter or the tang mian method (I think I should experiment with this method on a recipe that uses melted butter) I mentioned. It's interesting to note that your recipe says 1.25 ounces corn starch or rice flour to adjust to people's preferences for gritty vs creamy. I wonder if it'd still be excellent without either added. Do you have a specific method? Also, I Googled cups to ounces for comparison's sake: 8oz butter 14.2oz sugar 17oz flour And I think there must be something wrong with what I did, because cakewalk's recipe reads: 8.75 ounces (1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour 1.25 ounces (1/4 cup) of either corn starch or rice flour 5 ounces (about 2/3 cup) extra fine sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes The ratios seem too drastically different to be right? Or maybe that is what it takes and just shows how different two shortbread recipes can be? On a side note, why is salted butter cheaper anyways? Is it because it has a longer shelf life or something? I've always wondered this.

Thank you all for the encouragement! It's true, that's why this is so hard and I feel like it's kind of a long shot, but, to rephrase, I guess I'm really on the quest to find the 'most popular' recipe here (not what I like best - hopefully I'm part of the general consensus though, because the more people there are that like the final recipe, the more it shows it really is the best!). And 'most popular' amongst the food lovers here is probably going to be closer to 'best' than the 'most popular' somewhere else - I figured this is where I'll get as close to 'best' as I can! Hoping people will be willing to share their great recipes. If someone has one they think is the best they've ever had (compared to others they've eaten) please post... I'd like to use it to test the tang mian method I mentioned. Which also leads me to remember that I also wanted to mention that, besides the water evaporating if I use the method, I guess it would be considered using melted butter, which I know is another factor... I read that melted butter results in a chewier cookie and softened butter results in a more cake-like cookie, but, apparently these recipes are made specifically for the type of butter called for. So you can't just sub in melted for softened butter in a softened butter recipe (or vice versa) if you want a chewier cookie - you need a whole new recipe. I can't find the science behind that - does anyone know how exactly you'd have to change the recipe based on the butter? Having said that, should shortbread be chewy or cake-like? Should this texture be achieved through type of butter or through other means? Sorry, one more! After mentioning the gritty vs crumbly part in my first post, I looked for "how to make crumbly cookies" but kept getting results for why your cookie came out that way and how to avoid it! So I guess crumbly is supposed to be unwanted? Or is it different for shortbread...

Yes, of course I'm interested in picking myself, but as you mentioned, it's a well-kept secret. We did find someone who we thought was nice. Said he wouldn't show us the pines but would show us chanterelles. We don't like chanterelles but we thought it'd be a good start since we knew nothing at all except that we like the taste of pines! He said, "follow me and you'll leave with bucketfuls at the end of the day!" took us around on a wild goose chase and really took a toll on my older family members. It wouldn't have been bad if we were tired but achieved something. But we left tired and empty handed. Not a single finding. He didn't take us to his spots. He knew where they were. I have seen a couple ads of mushroom tour type things but they're hundreds of dollars and I doubt they'd show us the actual spots... We don't want this for commercial gain, just want to be able to eat some pine mushrooms affordably... But people do it for a living and I guess I understand that they're being protective. You should check out the second link in my first post. Pickers there are sharing info with each other. Yeah, the prices are way too good to be true, but I thought maybe it might be true for the professional mushroom buyers out there. Was wondering if anyone had any idea of the true price that the middleman is getting... Thanks for your response!

I beg to differ... Aren't the family recipes passed down through generations the best ones?! Especially with the classic ones like shortbread? If you love shortbread and you love your mother's, I would love to see it! Thank you for your interest and the kind welcome!

Hi there, I just came across these forums by chance (it was probably the 20th link I looked at when looking for the best lemon curd recipe?). I can't believe I've never seen or heard of it before after 10+ years on the Internet. It surprises me that it's not very widely-known though it seems so much more informative than other more widely-known food sites like chowhound (which reminds me more of Yahoo! Answers...). It seems like there is a large professional presence here and everyone seems very helpful. I wasn't going to post as it seemed out of my league, but after browsing a lot more I noticed some home bakers as well... And I came across many older posts for "Best X Recipe" which were extremely informative and interesting. I honestly read 30+ pages of these kinds of topics. It seems like that kind of thing is no longer being done so I hope this topic doesn't end up being out of place, but I've been assigned the task of finding the best shortbread recipe. And eGullet seems to do this kind of thing best. I always thought of shortbread as a basic, standard recipe, and did not think it would be too difficult to narrow down. But there are actually so many different recipes! Which is why I think I need help. Now, I've been assigned this from a 'purist'... i.e 'real' shortbread is just flour, sugar, and butter. But I've seen lots of recipes online that add cornstarch, salt, rice flour, etc. I was hoping to find the best 'purist' recipe and a best 'non-purist' recipe (unless the purist recipe is still better! That would be ideal, actually...) and I was thinking of doing a blind taste test to see if this purist actually thinks the other recipe is significantly better... I personally think shortbread tastes much better with salt, but I've noticed that 'shortbread' shouldn't really have salt in it... My confusion stems from the fact that I don't really know what good shortbread is (I am somewhat of a foodie fail... I think pretty much everything tastes good [everything homemade--there are a lot of store-bought goods I don't like]. I'm trying to improve!). This is really why I need help from the professionals here. I understand everyone has their preferences, but there must be some kind of standard that makes shortbread, shortbread. And shortbread, good shortbread. I mean, how else can places sell stuff labelled 'shortbread'? Is it possible to come up with a general definition for good shortbread? Through research, it seems some people say shortbread should be gritty. So some recipes even add rice flour. But we've all tried a rice flour version and the general consensus was that it was not good (including the purist). I think crumbly would be better than gritty (but what do I know)? I've also seen people saying cornstarch is their secret ingredient for a creamy cookie. Some add vanilla, some use icing sugar (which has cornstarch anyways...), some use granulated... I would like to know which ingredients produce the best results. Also, how important is technique? Cooks Illustrated presented a different technique for sugar cookies - they use the reverse creaming method which produces a tender, crisper cookie with less air bubbles. And I'd like to start another topic on this later, but I would really like to try using the 'tang mian' method for cookies, purely as an experiment... Unless anyone can advise against it with the science. It's a method for cakes which cooks the flour and butter to 65C first before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. Because the fat coats the flour, gluten does not form when it hits the liquid. I know there's no liquid in shortbread, so it won't serve that exact purpose, but I'd just like to see the results... Because it seems to essentially serve the same purpose as the reverse creaming method, except it's cooked. It'd be neat to compare. And considering that the water in butter would evaporate a bit during that process, the result could be favourable? More fat is always yummier?

Hi, I do know a few places where I can buy pine mushrooms. Online, and in stores as well, but as you probably know, it's extremely expensive. Which is why I haven't had any in a long time. But we really love these mushrooms and would love to purchase a large amount for a reasonable bulk price. But where can I get pine mushrooms for a reasonable price? And I know you can only get "reasonable" prices by buying in bulk (usually), and I do plan to. I had just given up on pine mushrooms before. The only reason I'm even trying to get a reasonable price is because I've recently come across various (albeit a bit outdated) discussion forums and the like where random mushroom pickers would discuss prices with each other. These are not retail prices, but prices they were quoted by mushroom buyers (not restaurants, but professional mushroom buyers who work as the middleman). And they're talking as low as $5/lb (https://www.facebook.com/pg/Terrace-Mushroom-Prices-623652257656530/posts/?ref=page_internal)! This post in November 2016 says $9/lb: http://matsimanmessageboards.com/buyer-picker-messages/ I've also seen random comments on related websites talking similar prices. I'm not sure how reliable and how relevant these posts are, and $5/lb seems crazy to me. Prices apparently fluctuate greatly (that Facebook group seems to have different prices every day... but has also stopped updating) but have also fallen significantly over the years. I've seen lots of articles, and comments on these articles, of pickers complaining that it's not what it used to be and mushroom buyers are quoting really low prices these days. I would be willing to pay more than $5/lb obviously. And probably a picker's whole day's pick. I just feel a bit put out because I live on the island right where these beautiful things are growing but I can't get them... Heck, I can see where these mushrooms are growing! (I can see the mountains from here...) There has to be someone with the right price out there? What does it take to be a professional mushroom buyer for a day?