TWD: Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies (and catching up with the Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp)

(Lenten season is over - hooray! So I can finally get back in track and bake along with the Tuesdays with Dorie-group, instead of doing some sugar-less rewind...)
And what a re-start - shortbread! I am a huge shortbread fan, and some of my colleagues (who are always the beneficiaries of all my baking) are, too. So, thanks a lot to Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine for chosing Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies. For the recipe, go to Valerie's page or have a look in Dorie Greenspan's fantastic book on page 130.

I used polenta instead of cornmeal (and idea I had stolen from Heather of Sherry Trifle and Cats), merely for getting-rid-of-it reasons. I cooked the polenta, because I thought it would be too granular and hard otherwise. The only other change I made is that I sprinkled about half of them with roasted, chopped nuts. They were great with and without the nuts. But maybe the plain version is even better.

They turned out just great, wonderful, marvelous. But, it's shortbread - what else can you expect?

And here comes a "sorry it is Lenten season, so no baking for me"-related catch-up rewind: I made the Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp, chosen by Sarah of Teapots and Cakestands. I HAD to do this as soon as possible, because in spring I merely live from strawberry-rhubarb compote, sometimes with vanilla sauce or joghurt, sometimes with some lemon balm, sometimes just plain. And I am a huge crisp/cobbler fan. So - perfect recipe for me. For the filling I made 1 1/2 recipes, and for the streusel I doubled everything, because for me there can never be too much streusel and I am always afraid it won't be enough. I tossed the sliced strawberries in some lemon-mint-lemonpepper-tinybitofchampagne-juice and let it in the refrigerator for some hours.
For the streusel I exchanged about half the nuts by coconut. I didn't look at the recipe thoroughly enough, so I didn't see it calls for candied ginger, which therefor I did not have at home and just omitted.

For the original recipe, go to Sarah's page or have a look in Dorie's book at pages 420 and 421.

And, btw, this is perfection!! Love it. Hope my colleagues will too, tomorrow. But let's face it: They get strawberry rhubarb crisp and shortbread. If they are not happy with that, I don't know what could please them....

Unfortunately, my pictures are not able to catch the superbness of this dessert.
(If I really have to give the grinch: It was, as often, too sweet. But maybe this is also due to the fact I didn't eat any sugar in the last seven weeks, so my senses are extremely sharpened at the moment).