I feel so honored that Tim The Girl and Peter Zubiate have taken me in their The Special Projects Social family/team.  For my second event with SPS, I made Strawberry Eton Mess with my fave shortbread cookie: Mantecaditos (recipe given to me by a friend from Puerto Rico).

As always, Tim wanted to use in-season produce for the event.  And my sis-in-law, a formally trained pastry chef, suggested the Eton Mess desert – the British version of berries and cream with merengue cookies for an extra special texture.

I followed Nigella Lawson’s recipe for the Eton Mess and Delia’s for easy merengue.  I started out making merengue by spoonfuls but also created “sheets” of them to add to the Eton Mess.

For the matecaditos, I followed this simple recipe:

- 1/2 c. of butter

- 1/2 c. of vegetable oil

- 1/2 c. sugar

- 1 tsp almond extract

- 2 1/4 c. all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix butter and oil until well blended; add sugar and almond extract.  Then gradually add flour until the dough forms and you can easily manipulate it without it sticking to your fingers.

Form little balls, flatten each a bit with your palms, and create indentation in the center with your thumb.  Lay the cookies out an inch apart over a tray lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 15 minutes and let them cool before removing them from the tray.  Enjoy!