Yes, you read the headline correctly. Today I ate some fantastic shortbread and it didn't come out of the Vermont Shortbread Company oven (oh my!).
I've tasted shortbread all over the country. I've blindfolded my friends and I've conducted taste tests. Rarely does any shortbread come close to the thick, slightly chewy textured shortbread cooked golden brown, crisp with crunchy crumbs at the edge and soft toward the middle treat that I make.
Until today.
Everything at the NECI cafeteria at National Life is great. Did you know the kitchens below the cafeteria are classroom kitchens full of NECI students learning how to bake bread, make desserts, feed large groups of employees high quality locally grown and raised food? Did you know that anyone can eat there, not just National Life employees?
Someone at NECI's National Life location made shortbread today. Made in a round pan, it was cut into petticoat tails very much like mine, but without the flower/heart design. I bought a $1.15 wedge thinking I would make fun of it (as I usually do with other people's shortbread) and was surprised to find that I actually wanted to eat the whole thing as a mid afternoon snack. Butter quality was excellent. Texture was perfect, not too crumbly, not raw and doughy. The shortbread was fresh and cooked with just the slightest bit of granulated sugar on top. The color was perfect; a little darker gold toward the edges and pale gold toward the middle. There seemed to be a saltier flavor than my shortbread (I use salted butter but no salt). There was no weird, bad-breath shortbread aftertaste that I've noticed with many of my competitors' products.
Not bad at all. Of course I'd like you to buy our shortbread if you're in need of a unique Vermont gift. But, if you find yourself in the National Life building in Montpelier, you have my blessings to buy a slice of good NECI shortbread. Better yet, give me a call before you come. I'll share one with you and spring for a cup of tea for both of us.
