You’ll discover the crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture and buttery taste of Scottish shortbread biscuits unmatched, which is why they’ve been in style for hundreds of years. There’s no cause for something this delectable to ever exit of fashion. It’s a traditional 5 ingredient recipe, and for good cause.
My Quest for the Excellent Scottish Shortbread
When The One and I spent a number of weeks in Scotland–the Highlands (above), Glasgow, and Edinburgh (beneath)–Scottish shortbread was on our hit record. We wished to know what made the very best shortbread and why it’s so beloved. (One chunk solved the beloved query!)
We spoke to skilled and residential bakers, prospects, and tea store homeowners. We had afternoon tea on the Tea Rooms At Edinburgh Fortress and frequented Pinnies & Poppy Seeds, which sadly is now closed. We ordered it all over the place.
We left no biscuit unturned. We found that many shortbread recipes go off the rails by including herbs and spices, nuts, dried fruit, and vanilla, calling for them to be dipped in chocolate. You get the concept. All of these are scrumptious variations, however in keeping with the Scottish bakers we talked to, they’re not the true, traditional Scottish shortbread.
With that in thoughts, again house, I researched for fairly a while in search of ratios of flour to butter to sugar, American shortbread versus Scottish shortbread, kinds of sugar, and so on. The range (and lack of settlement) is staggering. Rose Levy Beranbaum, as all the time, had some wonderful issues so as to add to the method of constructing shortbread. (The baggie concept is her, and it’s good.)
But it surely appeared to all the time come down to 2 issues: utter simplicity and the standard of the components.
What You’ll Must Make This
- Butter–The flavour of those conventional shortbread cookies is totally depending on the butter that you just use, so I like to recommend splurging on the very best you may afford. (You’ll thank me.) My favorites are Irish Kerrygold, French Échiré and Payson Breton, European-style Plugrà, and Vermont Creamery.
- Sugar–A mixture of granulated sugar and powdered sugar provides these cookies simply sufficient sweetness, whereas the cornstarch within the confectioner’s sugar contributes to that melt-in-your-mouth texture shortbread is legendary for.
Tips on how to Make This Recipe
- Blitz the sugars and butter in a meals processor to coat the butter.
- Dump within the flour and salt.
- Pulse till the dough is uniform and holds collectively when pinched.
- Scrape the dough right into a plastic bag and knead along with your arms till it comes collectively.
- Press the dough right into a removable-bottom 9-inch tart pan.
- Use the tines of a fork to create crimped edges and poke throughout with a skewer or toothpick.
- Reduce the shortbread into 8 triangles and chill for at the least half-hour.
- Bake in a 300°F oven till evenly golden, then rating the shortbread once more and let it cool utterly.
Widespread Questions
A tart pan with a detachable backside offers you the cleanest, prettiest edges, however it’s also possible to use a 9-inch spherical cake pan. Press the dough right into a parchment-lined cake pan coated with baking spray and rating into 8 wedges. Bake the cookies, and when cool, fastidiously invert them onto a rack.
Alternatively, you may line an 8-by-8-inch sq. baking pan with parchment and press the dough into it. Rating the dough into sixteen 4-by-1-inch or eight 4-by-2-inch fingers and bake as regular.
Certain can. After the shortbread has cooled utterly, retailer it in an hermetic container within the freezer for as much as 3 months.
Conventional shortbread is reduce into wedges or rectangular biscuits, and I like to recommend that you just stick to those shapes. The fragile texture of the dough will make it tough to chop utilizing intricate cookie cutters.
Whereas there’s lots of disagreement right here, essentially the most important distinction is that the Scottish model doesn’t name for leavening, reminiscent of baking powder or baking soda, leading to a crumbly fairly than a crispy biscuit. It additionally tends to be much less candy than different kinds of shortbread.
The dough incorporates lots of butter, which can soften and launch water as steam whereas it bakes. Poking holes within the dough permits the steam to flee with out inflicting the dough to bubble up in order that you find yourself with flat evenly-shaped cookies. It additionally helps the shortbread to cook dinner extra evenly.
Why Our Testers Cherished This
Tester Terry S. calls these cookies “buttery and seductive.” If that doesn’t ship you operating for the kitchen, I don’t know what is going to.
Useful Ideas
- When you’d desire to make rectangular shortbread biscuits, press the dough into an 8-inch sq. cake pan and rating it into sixteen 4-by-1-inch or eight 4-by-2-inch biscuits.
- The shortbread will agency up a bit because it cools. It’ll be very nigh unto inconceivable to not dive in and take a look at it instantly, however letting it cool utterly offers you a cookie that doesn’t crumble once you eat it.
- Retailer the cookies in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as 5 days. However I need to admit, they’re finest the primary few days after baking.
Extra Very good Shortbread Recipes
Write a Assessment
When you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, take into account leaving a evaluation, a star ranking, and your finest photograph within the feedback beneath. I like listening to from you.–David
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Flippantly coat a 9 1/2-inch removable-bottom tart pan with baking spray.
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Dump the sugars and butter right into a meals processor and pulse a number of occasions to coat the butter and reduce down the sugar.
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Scoop within the flour and salt and course of till the dough turns powdery and begins to clump evenly.
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Dump the dough right into a plastic bag and knead it till it varieties giant clumps.
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Prove the dough into the pan and press it into an excellent layer along with your fingers.
☞ TESTER TIP: To make a fantastically flat high, press one other backside of a tart pan (or a pie plate) into the dough.
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Press the tines of a fork into the sting of the pan to make a fragile ridged rim. Poke the shortbread throughout with a skewer or toothpick. With a bench scraper or sharp knife, reduce the dough into 8 triangles.
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Wrap the pan with plastic and chill for at the least half-hour.
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Crank the oven to 300°F (150°C).
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Bake the shortbread till the highest is evenly golden, 40 to 50 minutes.
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Switch the tart pan to a rack and instantly re-cut alongside the traces once more which may have closed up. Let the shortbread cool utterly within the pan.
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Take away the tart ring and gingerly pile the wedges onto a plate. Devour, devour, devour.
- Change the form–When you’d desire to make rectangular shortbread biscuits, press the dough into an 8-inch sq. cake pan and rating it into sixteen 4-by-1-inch or eight 4-by-2-inch biscuits.
- Let it cool–The shortbread will agency up a bit because it cools. It’ll be very tempting to dive in and devour these instantly, however letting them cool utterly offers you a cookie that doesn’t crumble once you eat it.
- Storage–The shortbread could be saved in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as 5 days or frozen for as much as 3 months.
Serving: 1 wedgeEnergy: 260 kcalCarbohydrates: 24 gProtein: 3 gFats: 17 gSaturated Fats: 11 gMonounsaturated Fats: 4 gTrans Fats: 1 gLdl cholesterol: 46 mgSodium: 8 mgFiber: 1 gSugar: 6 g
Diet info is mechanically calculated, so ought to solely be used as an approximation.
Recipe © 2023 David Leite. Images © 2023 David Leite. All rights reserved.
Recipe Testers’ Evaluations
These are my favourite Scottish shortbread cookies! Crispy, agency, buttery, they soften in your mouth and are addictive.
The preparation is kind of easy. Nevertheless, take into account that the butter should be very chilly when added to the opposite components. This dough could be ready upfront and saved within the chilly, so we will all the time have these scrumptious biscuits able to cook dinner.
This Scottish shortbread recipe is the cookie equal of a snowflake. Gentle, delicate, and dissolves magically on the tongue. I’ve a number of go-to shortbread recipes in my recordsdata, however this new model might change them.
The cookies are buttery and seductive. I may simply eat the whole batch and never share it with anybody. Fortuitously, my higher angels prevailed, and I did let my husband have a cookie. He liked it!
Crumbly, buttery, conventional Scottish shortbread. It’s a easy recipe, however scrumptious and properly value taking the time to make. Every part it is advisable make it’s most likely in your kitchen proper now.
As a result of the butter is a serious part of the flavour, I like to recommend utilizing a very good butter you get pleasure from!
