Traditional Scottish Shortbread
Shortbread is a Scottish invention, not English. You can use this recipe to make biscuit shaped shortbread or finger shortbread too. The recipe given instructs you how to make fantail style shortbread. I have adapted this recipe from one found in a recipe book. According to my Scottish husband its as good if not better than his granny used to make and I make a batch up as a gift for his mother. I take that as a huge compliment
Shortbread is a Scottish invention, not English. You can use this recipe to make biscuit shaped shortbread or finger shortbread too. The recipe given instructs you how to make fantail style shortbread. I have adapted this recipe from one found in a recipe book. According to my Scottish husband its as good if not better than his granny used to make and I make a batch up as a gift for his mother. I take that as a huge compliment
- Carbohydrate 11.05998125 g
- Cholesterol 13.4375 mg
- Fat 5.1801375 g
- Fiber 0.462187502831221 g
- Protein 1.06415625 g
- Saturated Fat 3.232584375 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (20g)
- Sodium 1.1925 mg
- Sugar 10.5977937471688 g
- Trans Fat 0.382834374999999 g
- Calories 94 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 160?C or Gas Mark 3
- Sift the plain flour, ground rice and salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into little cubes and add them to the flour. Tip in the caster sugar.
- Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour, just as if you were making pastry. When the butter has been absorbed, you'll be left with a sandy sort of mixture. Start to clump it together with your hands until you get a smooth, cake-like mass. The butter will hold everything together so no need to add any other liquids.
- Put the mixture into the centre of a cake tin about 20cm in diameter which has been greased. Using your knuckles or the back of a spoon, gently press out the shortbread to fit the tin in an even layer.
- Score in lines where you will cut later. Also using a fork, gentle pierce the top of the shortbread all over, try to make it decorative. It should divide into about 16 pieces.
- Put the tin in the oven and bake for about 15-20mins, until the shortbread is just beginning to take on the faintest trace of colour. This cooking time may vary, I have sometimes found it can take up to 45 mins to cook throughly.
- Remove from the over and place on a wire rack in its tin to cool.
Shortbread relies on a strict butter-to-flour ratio rather than chemical leaveners, meaning the structure scales linearly without altering the texture. When adjusting quantities up or down, maintain a standard baseline proportion of two parts plain flour to one part butter by weight, accompanied by smaller fractions of sugar and ground rice. Ground rice introduces a subtle grit that prevents the dense gluten network from becoming too tough, absorbing residual moisture as the butter melts during baking. Weighing ingredients on a digital scale ensures precision, as volumetric measurements of flour often introduce excess bulk that compromises the final crumbly texture.
Adjusting Batches Without Losing Integrity
Scaling down to a smaller pan or doubling the yield for a larger gathering requires careful monitoring of thickness. The dough must be pressed evenly into a twenty-centimeter tin to a consistent depth of roughly one centimeter to bake uniformly throughout. If the layer is too thick, the exterior browns before the center sets; if too thin, the biscuit dries out entirely. Piercing the surface with a fork allows trapped steam to escape, preventing large air pockets from distorting the shape while the butter renders.
- Bake at 160 degrees Celsius and watch for the faintest trace of golden color on the edges rather than relying on strict timing.
- Cool the shortbread completely inside the tin on a wire rack before attempting to slice along the pre-scored lines.
- Store baked shortbread in an airtight metal tin at room temperature to preserve the crisp texture for up to one week.
