This shortbread recipe is super easy to make, has a short cooking time and tastes great! What’s not to love?
How To Make Shortbread
The key to making easy shortbread also taste like the best shortbread is to use real butter.
Some recipes do suggest that you can use margarine in place of butter but personally, for me, the rich buttery taste of the real thing is what gives this shortbread a more traditional and AMAZING taste.
What makes this an easy shortbread recipe is that the only ingredients are; flour, butter and caster sugar.
Yes, that’s right, only 3 ingredients are needed to turn this into probably the best shortbread you’ve ever made!
Shortbread should take 15 to 20 minutes to cook in the oven, check on it at 15 minutes to see how it is cooking.
It’s important to make sure that the shortbread doesn’t cook for too long and turn brown. If it does, it’s cooked for too long, and will be a little hard to munch on; rather than soft and melt in your mouth loveliness.
Side note: If you take the shortbread out and really is too soft, pop it back in for a further 2 minutes – but don’t let it go hard.
The Quick Guide To Making Easy Shortbread
1. Make sure the butter is at room temperature and soft to touch. If it is too hard it will too hard to cream in with the sugar. You can use an electric mixer if you want to, but if the butter is soft enough you’ll have no problem creaming it up with a wooden spoon.
2. Sift the flour into the creamed butter and sugar. Gently mix it all together with your hands.
3. A soft dough should form. If it is too crumbly add a little more butter, conversely, if it is too sticky, add a little flour.
4. Press the dough into a greased baking tin and press it down with your hands. I like to gently score the slices of the shortbread, as well as use a fork to make some decorative holes on the surface before putting it in the oven.
Side Note: I got a bit carried away with my fork stabbing – you don’t need to add that many holes (unless you want to!)
5. Once the shortbread has been in for about 15-20 minutes, take it out – make sure it doesn’t go brown or it will be too hard. I usually slice up the shortbread while it is still warm and soft, leaving it in the baking tin until it is completely cool. I also sprinkle a little extra caster sugar over the top.
Storing Shortbread – How Long Will It Last?
I’ve never had the option of putting this to the test as it rarely lasts longer than a day or 2. However, should you find you have uneaten shortbread, it will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
The Best Shortbread Recipe
Yield: 8 slices
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Mmmm, shortbread! It tastes like an indulgent treat yet it is so quick and easy to make - it only needs 3 ingredients! Go on, go make it now...
As mentioned above, the main differences between the two styles of cookies are butter content and inclusion of leavening agents. These differences result in very different texture and taste experiences. No matter your preference, you can be sure to get a quality product from Walkers Shortbread.
Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour.
The key with shortbread is not to overhandle it. Make the dough exactly as instructed, but don't mess around making shapes or over rolling the dough - you will end up with delicious but tough biscuits. Stretching and pulling the dough activates the gluten in the flour, making chewy cookies and not crisp ones.
On a lightly floured surface, roll it out to a ½ cm (¼ inch) thick. Note: if the dough is too soft at this point then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or longer until it firms up slightly and makes it easier to roll out.
The word "bread" comes from "biscuit bread" which was made from leftover bread dough that was sweetened and dried out in the oven to make biscuits. Why do you poke holes in shortbread? The holes allow the moisture to escape during baking and more even heat distribution. This helps dry out and crisp up the cookies.
Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here. You'll see lots of shortbread recipes using granulated sugar.
If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent.
Shortbread should always have a tender, melting texture, but be slightly crisp when you bite into it. It should not generally be damp or wet underneath. A classic shortbread recipe will also only have flour, butter and sugar as the ingredients (in a 3:2:1 ratio) and not egg, which could lead to excess moisture.
To most of the rest of the English-speaking world, a biscuit is what Americans would refer to as either a cookie or a cracker. Biscuits can be sweet (shortbread) or savory. They're baked in the oven, and they're crisp, not chewy.
Walker's Shortbread is honoured to carry a Royal Warrant, granted by Her Majesty the Queen, for the supply of Shortbread and Oatcakes. Walker's Shortbread is a gift fit for a king, and a treat befitting any special occasion.
As shortbread was made with butter, sugar and flour, it would be both expensive and difficult to get hold of the ingredients, and so became synonymous with wealth, luxury and celebrations.
The name “petticoat tail shortbread” comes from the way the shortbread is cut into triangles & will usually have decorative edges, which resembles the silhouette of a petticoat.
Should butter be cold or room temperature for making shortbread? Always start with cold butter straight from the refrigerator. This will keep the dough from warming up, making it greasy and difficult to roll out.
This unexpected addition will make buttery confections like shortbreads and shortcakes even more tender and flaky. “Biscuits should be crumbly, buttery and sweet,” reads a headnote for a cinnamon sugar-spiced shortbread recipe in the Ritz London Cookbook.
This technique, Potlicker Kitchen shares, comes from Hungarian culinary tradition. Instead of pressing the dough into a pan, Hungarian shortbread instead is formed by layering the shreds of frozen dough and spreading jam in between. The result is a shortbread with a more crumbly texture.
Introduction: My name is Melvina Ondricka, I am a helpful, fancy, friendly, innocent, outstanding, courageous, thoughtful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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