My Christmas Shortbread

 

You can call this Christmas shortbread, Scottish shortbread, plain shortbread, magical shortbread, delicious shortbread, Granny's shortbread, or Vintage shortbread. What's in a name anyway, because the main thing is that this is a delicious biscuit recipe and a cinch to make in time for Christmas. Only 3 simple main ingredients are needed. Just what you need at Christmas time.

 I always think shortbread are quite magical, the way just a few ingredients transforms into such a delicious confection. If you have plain flour, icing sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in your pantry, you can make this recipe. 

 I have torrents of Scottish blood running through my veins, so when I make shortbread I reminisce about my Scottish ancestors, my dear Mum and also my favourite Great Aunt Eileen (not on the Scottish side) but a great cook, who always produced delicious shortbread at Christmas time, which is the traditional time in Australia to eat shortbread. These are mouth wateringly good biscuits and have the distinctive buttery flavour unique to shortbread.



The original recipe required two x 18cm or (7 inch) shallow cake tins which can't easily be purchased anymore. Perhaps they can be found in the cities where there are more specialist kitchen shops or at garage sales or op shops. Cake tins, saucepans and cutlery sets have often been passed down through generations, however the healthy emphasis on decluttering has possibly curbed that tradition. 

When Mr. HRK got wind of my cake tin dilemma, he sprung into action and was off to the Incredible Tip shop before I could say Jack Robinson, looking for some stainless steel to make two specially designed cake rings, similar to the  egg rings we used to poach eggs in but much larger. Do you remember those? I remember them being difficult to clean. In the end he found what he wanted at Bunnings, of course, and I now have two custom designed aluminium cake rings, 18 cm in diameter, with a lip for easy removal. Perfect for the task in hand. I told him he should patent the design, but he is a very modest handyman. These clean up very easily as well.

Both of my cake rings fit on my large biscuit tray and they worked a treat for cooking the shortbread. Having said all of that my friends, a shallow 8 inch cake tin would probably work just as well,  as most of them have a 7 inch (18cm) diameter base anyway. With a high sided tin though, it is trickier to remove the shortbread triangles from the tin. 

I  have a family Scottish tartan which my Mum and her Granny were very proud of, the Royal Stuart tartan. I was pretty excited about it as well,  and then we visited Scotland and it was everywhere in the tourist shops but of course I bought a scarf anyway, which makes a rare appearance in the North Queensland Winter, ha ha, or in this shortbread photo.

Royal Stuart tartan

Mr. HRK also has a Scottish tartan, the MacGregor clan tartan; his ancestors originated from the unruly MacGregor clan in the Scottish Highlands, the name was even banned at one stage, not nearly as refined as mine ha, ha. I could tell you the very interesting story of how shortbread was really launched in Scotland by Mary, Queen of Scots, but can be traced back in a variety of forms to the 12th century, and how it is still traditionally offered to the "first footers", or people through your front door,  at New Year. So shortbread is a great treat to bake for New Year as well. However look it up here on Historic UK if you are interested in knowing more. There is plenty written about this iconic Scottish biscuit, and I love the history of foods, but I think we need to bake don't you? Christmas is only 2 sleeps away.

Let's Cook:

Ingredients converted from the original imperial to metric measurement:

3 oz (87 g) sifted icing sugar
6 oz (175 g) softened butter
8 oz (225 g) sifted plain flour
pinch of salt

Equipment:

2 x 18 cm (7 inch diameter) shallow cake tins, approximately

Method:

Grease and dust 2 x 18 cm (7 inch) diameter shallow cake tins with plain flour. I dusted my biscuit tray with plain flour, and greased the cake rings.

Heat oven to 140 deg. C

Beat together (87 g) 3 oz sifted icing sugar or icing mixture, and (175 g) 6 oz butter until pale and creamy. If the butter is slightly softened, this takes hardly any time at all.

Add a pinch of salt to 225 g (8 oz plain flour) and sift it.

Fold flour into mixture, about a quarter at a time.



Remove mixture from the bowl and bring together on a floured bench.

Divide into 2 equal portions and press into the cake tins.



 I then like to roll the dough with a small bottle to smooth out the surface.

Mark around the edges by pinching the mixture between thumb and forefinger for an authentic shortbread appearance.

Take a cocktail fork or skewer and press about a dozen holes into the mixture. Shortbread always looks very attractive and tastes sweeter if sprinkled lightly with caster sugar before popping it in the oven. This might make the shortbread appear a little paler in photos though.

Bake for about 40 minutes (if you like it even crispier/crunchier cook for a bit longer). Mine took 50 minutes and was perfect, but definitely check it after 40 minutes. It should be very slightly browned.

Remove the tins or the biscuit tray onto a wire cooler and immediately cut into 12 triangular pieces as with a pizza.

Allow to cool in the tins and then remove and cool in slices for a little longer on a cooling rack.

If you don't have scales that show imperial as well as metric measures, the following is pretty close:

3oz = 87 g   6oz = 175g   8 oz = 225 g

Shortbread continues to be a lovely gift to bake for friends at Christmas time, and wrapped in tartan or presented in a beautiful biscuit tin, with a tartan ribbon, I think it is still considered to be special, holding a certain mystique about it.

Thanks for dropping by, I really appreciate it.

Merry Christmas, hoping you have a wonderful celebration.

Pauline