Sugar - Granulated or caster sugar is used. The recipe states granulated as it's more mainstream, but I personally go for caster sugar every time as it dissolves better into the butter. Use a sharp knife to slice cookie dough log into ¼-inch rounds. Place rounds on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. It's a style of biscuit (as called in the UK) or cookie (as called in the US) that originates from Scotland. Due to its high fat content, the formation of gluten is inhibited resulting in shortbread having an extremely 'short' tender texture. In American English, shortbread is different from shortcake. [16] Shortcake usually has a chemical leavening agent such as baking powder, which gives it a different, softer texture, and it was normally split and filled with fruit. [16] The most popular example of this difference is strawberry shortcake. [16] [17] Ingredients [ edit ] Rinsky, Glenn (2009). The pastry chef's companion: a comprehensive resource guide for the baking and pastry professional. Laura Halpin Rinsky. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. p.257. ISBN 978-0-470-00955-0. OCLC 173182689.

Triangular wedges of shortbread became known as "petticoat tails", and this form of shortbread has become particularly associated with Mary, Queen of Scots. [6] It has been suggested that a French term for the wedges of shortbread was petits gâteaux or petites gatelles – little cakes, and this became "petticoat tails". It is now thought the Scots term derives from the decorated round edge of the segments which resemble petticoats. [7]

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Shortbread is very simple, very easy to make and once you’ve made it yourself there will be no need to buy it again! Hi Sarah, Yes, absolutely you can. You can even roll the log in chopped nuts or sprinkles before freezing. Enjoy Today shortbread is a popular souvenir from Scotland. As well as plain shortbread, shortbread containing fruit, nuts and chocolate is now available, beautifully gift-wrapped in tartan or presented in tartan boxes.

STORAGE: Store in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight. Once opened, keep in an airtight container and consume within 2 weeks. Herbs: Mixing finely chopped herbs into the dough provides a subtle but herbaceous essence that is delightful. Herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage and lavender are my favourite. Flour ( Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Vegetable Margarine (Sustainable Palm Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Water, Salt, Natural Flavouring), Sugar, Maize Starch, Salted Butter (Butter ( Milk), Salt), Salt. In one of the oldest shapes, bakers pinched the edges of a shortbread round to suggest the rays of the sun. [3]There are many different recipes and regional variations for shortbread. The following recipe uses rice flour to give a slightly grainy texture: Cream the butter and icing sugar together, covering the bowl with a tea towel to begin with so that the icing sugar doesn’t fly everywhere. When fully combined, sift in the flour and mix to a soft dough. Now that you have your shortbread dough nailed, you have the perfect base recipe to then be able to flavour your shortbread. You can add as much or as little as your like! Here are just some ingredients that you can add. Since we didn't like them my partner took these biscuits to work and her colleagues agreed that these were the best ginger biscuits they tried and that they loved them, so I am just relaying the information.

In British English, shortbread and shortcake were synonyms for several centuries, starting in the 1400s; both referred to the crisp, crumbly cookie-type baked good, rather than a softer cake. [16] The "short-cake" mentioned in Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor, first published in 1602, was a reference to the cookie-style of shortbread. [16] Use this dough as the base for biscuits, to eat yourself, or to make as a Christmas gift Nutrition: HighlightOnce you’ve tried our recipe for simple, round shortbread biscuits, why not mix things up with one of our variations? You’ll be glad you did. Shortbread was an expensive luxury and for ordinary people, shortbread was a special treat reserved just for special occasions such as weddings, Christmas and New Year. In Shetland it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the threshold of her new home. The custom of eating shortbread at New Year has its origins in the ancient pagan Yule Cakes which symbolised the sun. In Scotland it is still traditionally offered to “first footers” at New Year. We’ll never say no a bit of home-made shortbread. And with so many lovely recipes on our blog, we’ll never run out of ways to enjoy it. Nuts: Any type of chopped nuts can be added to your shortbread mix. Lightly toasted or raw nuts as per your preference, chop them up coarsely for even distribution throughout the dough. Examples you might like are walnuts, pecan, pistachio, almonds, hazelnuts and sesame seeds. one large circle, which is divided into segments as soon as it is taken out of the oven ( petticoat tails, which may have been named from the French petits cotés, a pointed biscuit eaten with wine, or petites gastelles, the old French term for little cakes. This term may also reference the shape of a petticoat [3]);