When my youngest son started playing soccer last year, I started to see some of my Facebook friends comment about an Apple TV+ show called Ted Lasso. I tuned in on a rare day off and my family was immediately hooked.
Ted Lasso (portrayed by Jason Sudeikis) is a college football coach (Wichita State) from the Midwest. He’s hired to coach a pro soccer team in England despite knowing nothing about soccer. During the show, he tries to win over the team’s owner, Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), by making his biscuit recipe.
It’s a kind of old-fashioned show. You can experience a wide range of emotions in like 30 seconds sometimes.
But before I totally fan-girl out, let’s get back to the food. … Unfortunately for Rebecca, Ted’s biscuits aren’t the fluffy mounts of melt-in-your-mouth goodness that are a staple of kitchens throughout the South. Biscuit is a British term for a cookie. These happen to be shortbread, a cookie that is made without any leavening, such as eggs, baking powder or baking soda.
Shortbread is tasty, but real Southern biscuits are life.
Almost every episode, Ted gives Rebecca a pink box filled with shortbread cookies for what he calls Biscuits with the Boss. It is such an integral part of the show that during my kids’ trick-or-treating adventures on Halloween, most of the Ted Lassos we came across carried a pink box with them.
Besides expanding our culinary adventures into British cuisine and different kinds of barbecue (Ted is a Kansas City barbecue fan), watching the show as a family sparked an overall interest in soccer and sports in general.
My oldest kids, who at first were reluctant to attend their brother’s games, now chase the ball around the field with the team when they can.
When soccer is on the television at home or at a restaurant, we don’t automatically change the channel anymore. Ted Lasso made soccer cool. It’s like hanging out with my dad, who used to watch sports all-day long during the weekends. But now, my kids are hanging out with me and my husband, yelling at the TV screen about something they care about.
In September, Apple TV+ released Ted Lasso’s biscuit recipe. It’s a traditional shortbread, which is tasty. I find it kind of boring, so I’ve also included a copy of a recipe from Milk Bar, a chain of dessert and bakery restaurants based in New York City. The company released the free recipe, created by founder and chef Christian Tosi, in honor of the finale of Season 2.
The Milk Bar recipe adds brown sugar and egg yolks to give the biscuits a little more caramelized flavor and chewy texture.
Hope you enjoy your culinary adventure!
TED LASSO’S BISCUITS
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
Directions
■ Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
■ Sift flour and salt, mix into a bowl and set aside.
■ Mix butter on high speed until fluffy (3 to 5 minutes).
■ Gradually add sugar slowly, continuing to mix until pale and fluffy.
■ Add flour all at once and mix until combined.
■ Butter a square pan.
■ Pat and roll shortbread into the pan no more than 1/2-inch thick.
■ Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
■ Cut into squares.
■ Bake until golden and make sure the middle is firm. Approximate bake time is 45 to 60 minutes.
■ Cool completely. Re-slice them, if necessary, and serve.
TED LASSO X MILK BAR BISCUITS
Ingredients
2 sticks (1/2 lb) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
3 tbsp light brown sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. kosher salt
Directions
Heat the oven to 315 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, mix the butter and sugars vigorously until smooth.
Stir in the egg yolks. Add the flour and salt, mix just until the dough comes together. (The less you mix the dough, the better your biscuits will taste.) Using damp hands, press the dough in an even layer in the pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a thin, golden brown layer forms on top. Let cool completely before cutting into two even columns and then six even rows.
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