💫Guest Chef Laurie Ellen's Seeded Oatmeal Shortbread

From recent Good Foods Award Winner (X2!) thin, crisp, lightly sweet slice 'n bake shortbread with a beautiful mosaic of seeds

I’ve long admired Laurie Ellen’s baking, and in particular the cookie company that she started—her cookies are like jewels, but aren’t precious. Never overly sweet, and some verge on savory, and they are absolutely beautiful and addictive. Check out her retail site laurieellen.com (and her Instagram account @lpelican).

Laurie Ellen is a recent Good Food Awards Winner for two of her products, and we’re lucky to include this recipe in the Guest Chef series—you can never have enough cookie recipes, and getting one from someone who specializes is, well, very special! Originally developed for a special CAP Beauty cookie box collab with Chad Robertson, the recipe yields 11 dozen, but they’re slice ‘n bake, so you can have some ready and waiting in your freezer for when cookie noshing strikes.

If you missed it, the first Guest Chef recipe I featured was for Sandra Holl’s Chocolate Hazelnut Financier that she makes at Floriole Bakery in Chicago. It’s divinely chocolatey.

Shortbread recipe follows questionnaire.

BAKER'S DOZEN CHEF QUESTIONNAIRE

Laure Ellen Pellicano

Worked at Tartine:

2010-2015, Tartine Guerrero

What food holds the happiest memories for you?

Marzipan! When I was a kid my grandfather used to go into Manhattan every year to pick up a gingerbread house in Yorkville, a historically German neighborhood. He’d go to the Elk Candy Company, known for their exquisite confections, most notably, marzipan. Sadly, many of the old German businesses on 86th Street have disappeared over the years, including Elk Candy, which closed in 1997 after a 64-year run.

Which chef, living or dead, do you most admire, and why?

Edna Lewis, hers is some of the most beautiful culinary writing I have ever read and it came to me at a time in my life when I was really ready to receive it.

What's your guiltiest pleasure food-wise?

If we're talking about guilty pleasures in terms of spending, I'd say Luxardo Maraschino cherries. But if we're talking about guilty pleasures in a more traditional sense, because it might give me gout, I'd say cured meats! Like the fine charcuterie and salami–which in my SF days was from the Fatted Calf and in the NY area it means La Salumina.

What three cookbooks would you save from a fire?

In reality, if there were a fire in my four-floor walk-up, I'd prioritize getting out safely rather than saving any belongings! However, in a fictional scenario where my cookbooks are the last copies on Earth and I'm not concerned about being trapped on the fourth floor, I'd grab: The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, and, of course, Tartine Bakery.

What is a meal/dessert you never tire of?

I never tire of dessert, period, full stop. But if I absolutely had to choose, it would be cookies and pasta forever.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I believe it has yet to come.

What's the most memorable meal of your life?

I don’t love the idea of “most” because I don’t live in such extremes - so I’ll share a particularly delicious memory. When I was studying abroad in Spain, I visited Istanbul, Turkey, to see friends and it happened to also be Eid al-Adha. I was privileged to spend the holiday feasting with my friend’s family, who prepared numerous incredible dishes that I know I’ll never have the chance to eat again. Among them was the flakiest, richest, earthiest börek, baked in a special small oven dedicated solely to this dish. This trip changed how I saw eating and sharing food. It made me realize that it's an incredible way to communicate.

What kitchen tool do you reach for the most?

I'll give you a different answer, because technically, the tool I use most often is the knife and cutting board. But the kitchen tool I find the most excuses to reach for is probably the multi-wheel pastry cutter, also known as an adjustable dough divider. It’s just fun.

Is there anything you would change about your culinary education and how?

My culinary education was on the job, and I wouldn't change a thing about that. However, if I could go back, I would prioritize taking better care of my body and advocating for myself and my peers earlier in the industry.

What was your favorite dessert/sweet thing when you were a kid?

A very wide bowl of Oreo cookies n’ cream ice cream, whipped a little to soften until it’s more the texture of gelato eaten with a small spoon. Or chocolate pudding pie in a graham cracker crust, eaten for breakfast.

Favorite kind of birthday cake - either to make or receive?

For years it was the Busy Bee cake from The Black Hound - it was an almond-based cake with marzipan, covered in chocolate with little marzipan bees on top and my mother would ship me a cake for my bday when I lived across the country. The bakery closed many years ago, but I still miss that cake.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Perfection does not exist and happiness eludes me. But I think exercise, therapy, cookies and mindfulness are helping. So I guess I’d say right now it’s a fresh cup of coffee, a cozy corner with the sun streaming in, eating a cookie.

What's your motto?

Always be welcome back. I take being a guest/host very seriously.

Clockwise from top left: mixture of butter, sugar, salt, and egg; rolling the dough in parchment to chill and slice; portioning the shortbread; baked shortbread; closeup of cookie; dipping cookie in sugar