Scottish Shortbread
By: Bookshop
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 4:01pm

Ingredients




1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
200 grams butter
1/2 cup fine-grained brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean (opt)

Preparation

1 Sift flour and salt and set aside. Heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). 2 Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat again, scraping the sides once or twice. Slit the vanilla bean (if using) and scrape out the paste and add into the mixer. Add half the flour and mix. Add the other half and stir until the mixture forms a soft dough. 3 Scoop the dough onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper (I use no. 100 ice cream scoop and place 9 balls on the pan). Flatten the balls with the back of a fork. Place the pan in the fridge for 5 minutes to firm the dough up before baking. Place the rest of the unused dough in the fridge while waiting. 4 Bake the shortbread for about 12-15 minutes or until the bottom edges turn barely golden. Repeat for another batch.

About


I used to love the buttery and crumbly Walker’s Scottish shortbread but recently, I am bothered by the ‘factory’ after taste. I scoured the internet to find a recipe because shortbread is actually very easy to make especially with this trick. Instead of rolling the dough, use an ice-cream scoop to form the soft dough into rounds. No sticky dough on plastics, no smears on counter-tops!  Some recipes call for the use of rice or corn flour but I think it’s crumbly and ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ enough with all-purpose flour. So I skip it. It’s important to use the sea-salt though. It truly makes a ton of difference.   The recipe below is modified from the wonderful 101 Cookbooks .