Traditional Shortbread. Shortbread is one of the most famous Scottish cookies. It is eaten around Christmas and is also an essential part of a traditional Scottish New Year ( called Hogmanay). The success of a "shortie"—the Scottish nickname for shortbread—is to handle the dough with care and work it as little as possible. Traditional Scottish Shortbread Recipe Perfectly crumbly, irresistibly buttery and wonderfully delicious, Scottish Shortbread has been a year-round favorite treat for centuries! Shortbread is as basic and simple as a cookie (biscuit) can get.
It was a beautiful golden color and not too sweet-real shortbread.
I wrapped the circle in red cellophane paper and gave it away as a Christmas gift.
Four stars only because the dough was slightly dry nothing that I couldn't fix by adding some more butter.
You can have Traditional Shortbread using 4 ingredients and 5 steps. Here is how you cook it.
Ingredients of Traditional Shortbread
- It's 25 of p grams of butter, softened.
- You need 1/2 (1 cup) of icing sugar, sifted.
- You need 1 2/3 cups of plain flour.
- You need 1/4 cup of rice flour.
The shortbread can be shaped before or after cooking, and most traditional recipes call for discs, squares, petticoat tails (triangular pizza-shaped slices made out of a big circle), or thick rectangular fingers. Pat the shortbread into the pan and cut after baking or roll it and cut the dough in the preferred shape. You can make traditional wedges, like you see above, or cute little cookies, like you see below. It was the first shortbread recipe I ever made, and I've never found a better one.
Traditional Shortbread instructions
- Beat butter and icing sugadin a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffg. Sift in flours, combine well with a wooden spoon..
- Press dough inti a ball. Knead lightly untik smooth. Pat dough into a 23 cn round, about 1 cm thick, on greased baking tray..
- Score into fingers or wedges. Pierce with fork. Bake at 140°c for 35-40 minites or until set and browned..
- Cool on trays for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. When almost cool. Cut througg line into pieces (try using a bread knife in a sawing motion for neat pieces). Cool shortbread completely. Store in an airthight container..
- Note: dough can be rolled out and cut into small rounds or bars, cut with scone or biscuit cutters or pressed into wooden shortbread or butter moulds, as desired. Reduce baking times is cooking smaller pieces..
The ingredients are so basic and easy that you'll soon have them memorized. Other recipes don't seem to produce the same perfect texture and flavor. Vary the flavor of your shortbread with the following simple additions. Historically, Scottish shortbread only varied from traditional shortbread in that it was originally made with remnants of bread dough, oatmeal and yeast, resulting in a dry, biscuit-like cookie. Over the centuries, the recipe has evolved into the much tastier, buttery treat we know it to be today.