During Tuesday’s Spring Loaded event, Apple announced (among other things) that the second season of its runaway hit show Ted Lasso would drop on July 23rd. This is extremely good news for fans of the show (including myself) who have missed the earnest football coach with the impossibly sunny outlook on life, which provided a bit of a respite during the coronavirus pandemic last summer.

At the very end of Spring Loaded, however, there was a Ted Lasso-related Easter egg: a graphic of a little box with the text “Ted Lasso’s Secret Shortbread (Makes about one box).” The recipe itself was barely visible. But eagle-eyed developer David Smith was able to read the text, and Googled it, only to find it matched a New York Times recipe for shortbread (albeit a slightly different recipe than Ted’s).

He blogged about it here:

Looking closely at the fractional letters visible I’m pretty confident that this first line reads:

1 1/2 cups / 340 grams cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces plus more for greasing pan

This is definitely a recipe for shortbread, I mean what else would need that much butter!

That really is a lot of goddamned butter.

For those who don’t watch the show (and why the heck not?), the shortbread cookies are a key part of the plot. Ted is trying to win over Rebecca, the owner of the English football team he’s suddenly coaching, and presents her with a small pink box that has the shortbread inside (we later discover that Ted has been baking the shortbread himself, not purchasing them, because that’s Ted for ya).

Rebecca enjoys them.

There are not many pure, good things on the internet anymore (she said as she wrote for an internet news site haha of course I did not mean The Verge, we are great), but a little sleuthing to uncover a shortbread recipe from the best show on streaming reminds me of those innocent days gone by. Like Ted reminds us: you just have to believe.