Shortbread

JackyB I always have some decent quality butter in the freezer - I get it when on offer.

Well, you do need quite a lot of butter so unless you always have a stash in the fridge for baking, you might need to get some in.

Am thinking shortbread is something you pretty much always have the ingredients in so no need to go out and buy anything. Also, ingredients that are readily available anywhere, no need to buy anything fancy.

Babs03 have looked on Etsy - as well as tons there are some fabulous wood carved thistle moulds and rolling pins. Will try the variations of the recipes with semolina and orange etc etc. Thank you all, the replies and thought of making shortbread bringing back wonderful memories of childhood and baking. Am looking out for old fashioned tartan tins now. I also remember my mother always saying use the best butter you can afford.

Thank you for all the replies so far, wanted to wait until I had time to respond properly. JackyB, it is a wooden mould of a thistle and not a cutter as I wrote. Am going to buy one, it looks a bit like an old fashioned wooden bread board.

I’ve always added ground rice which gives it that certain delicious something. I suppose it’s the semolina and Mary Berry effect.

I use a recipe that includes semolina. You can find this online.

Just recalled I have shortbread moulds, five in all, one is well used from my late MIL, a fantastic baker. Two have thistle pattern. Ashamed, as a Scot, to admit I've never used them!
MIL's recipe is 6 oz flour, 2 oz rice flour or cornflour, 2 oz castor sugar, 4 oz butter and pinch of salt.
Mix the dry ingredients.
Add butter in a piece and work in till right consistency (not sure what this is!)
Turn onto board and cut into shapes about 3/4" thick. Prick tops.
Bake in steady oven till they begin to colour, then moderate oven and bake slowly about 1 hr.
Leave in oven to cool.
MIL was professional head cook in big country houses, and her instructions are rather vague but her shortbread was to die for!!

Shortbread should have rice flour in it to be traditional. Try Mary Berry's recipe, includes semolina which is a reasonable substitute for modern day use. I have a wooden thistle mould and cutters. They were passed to me by an old aunt. They should never be immersed in water , only wiped with a damp cloth. Same as a wooden rolling pin.

Wow! Such differing recipes. From 3:2;1 to 1.25:1:1. And some say knead a lot, others say don't knead too much.

Feeling gloomy earlier because the biscuit tin was empty, I saw this thread…and now I have a tray of shortbread cooling. Thanks for the tip to use semolina, though mine has probably been in the pantry for at least 10 years it seems to have worked well!

JackyB

Intrigued about the wooden cutter. Is it really sharp enough to cut out shapes?

I would suggest freezing the shapes before you bake them or they might just melt into unrecognisable blobs in the oven.

If the proportions of ingredients are right, it won't melt. Is it actually a cutter or is it a wooden mould? The traditional way is to lightly sprinkle sugar and flour or semolina into the mould and then press a ball of shortbread dough into the pattern. You turn the mould over onto a baking tray and remove it from the shortbread. The sugar/flour mix lets it be released without sticking, and the design shows on the top of the shortbread.

I apologise is this is teaching grannies to suck eggs (to suck shortbread?) but my daughter wasn't aware of it, and used my shortbread mould in the oven like a cake tin - the shortbread was fine, but the mould has never been the same since.

Graham's butter.

Martha Stewart’s shortbread recipe that makes a 13 by 9 inch
you mark it out prick with a fork looks very professional.
Actually all her recipes are good,they wouldn’t dare fail.

1/4 lb. sugar
1 lb. butter
1 lb flour
1 pinch of salt

Cream butter and sugar and knead the flour gradually in.

Roll out the dough o a floured board to a round cake, about ½ inch thick. Score the dough with a knife in portions, so it is easy to divide. Bake it in a round, well greased tin.

This is my great-grandmother's recipe.

The traditional decoration for shortbread fingers is a line of fork marks parallel to one another. It's simple, looks very nice and doesn't require buying a fancy cutter -- although I do agree that thistle imprints look good on round biscuits.

I would buy a new plastic box with sides that click shut for an airtight seal . Most tins are not air tight and often say transfer to an air tight container once opened printed on the tin . You could put a paper doily in the box first.

From what I remember the most important thing in making shortbread was not to knead the mixture too much. Overkneading causes proteins to develop that make the shortbread tough. You can either make it by rubbing the butter into flour then add the sugar or mix the sugar and butter then add the flour and rub into breadcrumb texture. bring it together as you would pastry then either press lightly into moulds or roll out and shape into a circle and mark the tringle shapes before baking.

How lovely to have such a precious thing!

I love a bit of orange zest in my shortbread.

I use a wooden shortbread mould that one of my gran’s brothers carved whilst in hospital due the effects of a gas attack during the First World War. I use her recipe which is plain flour, butter and caster sugar. It’s never failed me yet.

Using the right proportions is important Flour butter sugar 3:2:1

ALWAYS use proper decent butter.....

I've made loads of shortbread over the years for charity sales, hungry builders--- and ourselves, and use the Mary Berry recipe which never fails, is delicious, and the quantities are easily adaptable. Take a weight of plain flour and rub in the same weight of butter.It will be lumpy. Then add half the weight of both caster sugar and semolina. I line the shallow tin with baking parchment, tip in the mixture, spread it out evenly then press it really flat with a spatula, then sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Bake in a moderate oven until pale gold. Cut in slices while still warm and leave in the tin until cold. Sorry, can't give an exact temperature as I use an Aga.

Intrigued about the wooden cutter. Is it really sharp enough to cut out shapes?

I would suggest freezing the shapes before you bake them or they might just melt into unrecognisable blobs in the oven.