Petitgrain Sur Fleur Shortbread Cookies

What did I learn from making shortbread cookies with bergamot, petitgrain sur fleur and a little clementine rind? Less is MORE, as per the usual findings. Methinks half the petitgrain sur fleur, half the bergamot and perhaps elimination of the clementine rind altogether is the answer to the resultant soapy after taste. It wasn't horrible, no, in no way was it really bad, but it was disconcerting, and nothing a splash of hot tea across the tongue couldn't remedy. The house smelled of the outlying countryside's bi-yearly orange blossom bloom while the cookies were baking. Everybody who came in took a deep sniff and pronounced, "Man, your house ALWAYS smells sooooo goooood!" Okay, really, only two people said that. But everyone else traipsed around happy as mindless loons, perhaps not really knowing why. I'm considering drilling holds in the cookies and lacing string through the holes to wear the cookies as jewelry -- they smell that good.

Happy Yule, my loves.